Winter has arrived!

Winter has officially arrived here! With a little bit of snow arriving today, we are also getting temperatures over 30 degrees colder than just a few days ago and we have winds that are gusting up to 35 mph and more snow on the way. We are actually under a winter weather advisory and it is cold and the roads are going to be slick as this freezes and more snow moves in.
I personally don't like the cold, but I know that we needed a good freeze. It is a nice break from the mud that we have endured for several weeks. I don't like having to feed the animals in this weather and I certainly do not like want to drive in this.
On the bright side, I learned today that our first 4-H meeting is Jan.31 and so preparations for the fair are right around the corner. I am personally really anxious for the fair to get here! I really had fun last year and although it was one of the hottest on record, it was still nice to be there and experience all of the fun that it led too. Matter of fact, Bridget and I actually bought some stuff to decorate the horse stall with the other day.
Tomorrow is Friday the 13th for those of you who are superstitious it might be a day to stay inside. I personally don't really worry about it and I am planning to continue my day the same as always. I hope to be able to get to the homeschool skate tomorrow afternoon, but it all depends on how the weather is.
My husband will return tomorrow from being out of state and I am actually really excited about him coming home! I usually accept the fact that he is working to make us money, but this time has really been different with him being gone.
I better close this. My daughter is asking for cookies so I guess I need to make something for us to snack on as we watch our movie and enjoy our wood stove and the heat that it brings. I am thinking that I would like to have some coconut coffee this evening!

Happy Anniversary

Decided that I would change this up a little today for the special occasion! Today is my 17th wedding anniversary - tonight at about 6:15 or so I will have been married to my wonderful husband and although we have had our struggles and we have not always had the best of a marriage, we have stood by each other and we have made it work.
He is out of state working so there is no celebration tonight. It seems he may be home for a few days after this trip and leave again to do another job. He used to stay out of town for up to two weeks at a time and it never bothered me, but this trip is a little different. I am missing him a little more this time and it seems as though he has been gone for a long time although I know he has not.
It is raining here and they are predicting snow for tomorrow. I know it is January and we have been lucky to have the weather that we have had. Unfortunately, I do not like cold and snow so I am hoping that it misses us.
Well, it is time to close for the day. I have plenty of work to do and I have not made an effort to do it yet today. Hope all of you have a great day!

Evening At Home

My husband is out of town working so my daughter and I are home alone, which really changes life some. We had a frozen pizza for dinner and watched a movie together and just spent a quiet evening at home. It was nice to sit and relax, although I do miss my husband.
Tomorrow a very different day is approaching. We will be busy with school, going shopping, grocery shopping, and getting all of our errands ran. Today was really nice out and we spent some time outside catching up on some extra chores that needed to be done around here. We stacked wood and cleaned the yard.
Tomorrow is supposed to be a very unique January day for the midwestern United States as we are to reach temperatures in the lower 50's. The end of the week doesn't look so good with colder temps and possible snow. I guess we have to accept it, but I really don't want too. I would not mind if it stayed warm the rest of the year.
I am not sure if anyone else seen the cosmic moon on Saturday evening, but if you didn't you missed a purely unique and amazing weather event. My oldest daughter called me to tell me that I needed to look at the moon as she knew I would want to see it. About 2 feet away from the moon was a white circle which completely encircled the moon. She said that the internet said that it was a cosmic moon which is caused by ice chrystals forming and not being able to fall to earth. It is the same sort of event that causes a rainbow when the sun is shining. It was absolutely amazing and beautiful and a reminder that God is still creating wonders for us!
I must ask for prayer for my best friends' brother in law tonight as he is suffering with pancreatic cancer and is not doing well at all. Please keep the family in your prayers! I know that God is there and can make this easier for him and the family.
Enjoy whatever tomorrow brings!

Sticking to my plan

Well, with sticking with my plan to add a little to my blog each day I am writing this at 11 p.m. as it is my first time to sit down and actually work on this. I am attempting to catch up on some online work as I am sitting here after spending most of the day working on stuff for my husband and for doing housework. Four loads of laundry and cleaning a cabinet has been a load for today after we done school for the day and I worked on getting tax information ready.

I have a quick recipe that I want to share with you. Many of you may already eat a meal similar to this, but this is one of my quick wintertime meals for my family. It uses very few ingredients and is a meal that usually takes less than 30 minutes to cook.

Stuffing Casserole Meal

1 box of Stove Top Stuffing
4 pork chops or 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 jar of gravy, either pork or turkey
salt and pepper to taste

In a long casserole dish, mix the stuffing mix ( whatever flavor you choose) with the water that it calls for on the box of stuffing. Preheat oven to 400 degrees farenheit. Place the meat of your choice on top of the stuffing and pour a jar of gravy over it. Salt and pepper to taste and add any extra seasonings you might like. Place into the oven and bake until meat is done, usually about 25 minutes.

Very tasty as well as quick and easy, plus a warm meal for those chilly winter evenings.

Wishing all of you a wonderful day!

New Years Goals and Resolutions

New Years is always a chance to look back on the previous year and see what we could have done differently and a chance to make some new goals and resolutions for yourself. I personally never really make resolutions as I am always sure that they will be broken before the month of January is over. Goals are another thing because you can meet them at anytime and you can never completely break a goal.

Setting goals in our lives can put pressure on us at times, but can always cause us to work harder in our daily lives. I personally set several goals at the beginning of the year for myself and for my family. In my personal life, I tend to make goals for different aspects of my life. My first goal is always to have a closer walk with Jesus Christ. I believe that my Lord and Saviour deserves a close walk and that we can always work harder at having a closer relationship with Him.

Secondly, I choose to set goals for what things I want to change in my "career". I consider my online writing my career right now and so I have chosen to set some goals for that. By this time next year, I intend to have my first book written and I hope to have it published. I will allow myself to not have it published but it needs to be in the works. I also have made goals that I intend to meet both daily and monthly in my online writing.I am also planning to make some major steps in getting more daily views to the blog here.

I also have set goals that I want my daughter and I to reach in our home school. It is important for me to know that I am doing the best that I can for her and that includes training her in her knowledge and her quest for learning more. She struggles with spelling, reading and some math, but she is learning a lot and she is gaining momentum each day. I am looking forward to her increasingly learning more and more about word structures and meanings. I also am proud that she is seeming to catch onto spelling a little more. Division seems to come easier for her than multiplication did and although I don't understand that I know what I need to do to teach her.

I also have set goals for my own personal life. There are things that I intend to accomplish this year that I may not have done before but I will get done this year! I am very busy with the teaching and the farm work here, but I feel that we all have to take the opportunity to learn more each day and that I sometimes forget to take time to learn on my own. I won't let that happen this year as I will give myself a break and give myself the time to learn some of the things that I want to learn. I know that by reading the blogs that I follow just on this site will teach me alot.

One of my major goals for this year is to learn more about training horses and teaching our colt that will be two this summer. I want to attempt to break her myself and I will have to find a bond with her that she can trust me and I can trust her. I know a little but I have a lot of learning to do. I will attempt to use this blog to share my skills and my adventure with Vanilla. She is such a beautiful colt and I just adore her!

Here is wishing each of you who set goals and make resolutions, the best of luck in meeting those goals and reaching the milestones that you want in your resolutions.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to all my readers out there! I am a few days late saying this as I have felt under the weather since the beginning of the year. I had a really bad day on New Year's Day and have gradually started feeling better, but not feeling up to myself.
Life on the farm seems to run slow if I am not up and running at top speed. However, I must say that the house has not fell apart and I have managed to keep meals cooked and I have managed to keep school in session the past two days. We have to attend school for 180 days in a year according to state law and we are currently at 80 days, so we are on track to finish at about the time that I had planned for the year. I am excited about that!
This year I am planning to make some changes in our lives. One is that I intend to make reading a top priority for all of us and I think that the television is going to be more limited as to when it is on. I also want to take more learning trips for school. Whether you want to speak of field trips or what you choose to call them, I feel that they can provide a lot more experience for kids to learn. I hope to share all of them with my wonderful readers here.
Currently, our biggest project here in school is to work on a history fair project that will be set up at the local historical museum to showcase our talents and skillls. Bridget has decided that she wants to do her project on Betsy Ross, so tomorrow we will make a trip to the library to begin our research. We might attempt to make a replica of the first flag for this as well, we will have to see what we plan.
She will also be doing a science fair project this year for the first time! Dad is going to be responsible for helping with that as science is not one of my best or most liked subjects. I want her to do well as it will be showcased at the museum as well and the public will be there to see the displays.