Have Some Fun...

Well Hello!!

How are you all doing today?

It's Summer....Have Some Fun!

In a blink of an eye, Summer will be gone 

and we will be moving on to Fall.

Can you hula hoop?

If not, try at least once!

You'll laugh...I can promise you that!

What fun things have you tried in this season?

I have tried stream fishing.

I was surprised at how fun it was.

You move quick... no patience needed for it.

Within the first 3 minutes, I caught 3 fish!

Go for a walk, explore!!

Take a day trip somewhere you've never been.

Bake something new...

Go for a drive with your family!

I went 4-wheeling with my boys

I had so much fun!!

Getting stuck in the mud is what it's all about!!

Laugh and do some winching...

Lot's of winching, lots of mud!!

Be outdoors!!

Be present!! Be in the now!!

GO HAVE SOME FUN!!

Thanks so much for stopping by,

Honoring Your Husband...

Well...January is almost over

 and February is on it's way...

I'm telling you, the days are just flying by 

quicker and quicker.  

I seriously just blink and it's the next day.

(Smiles)

I wanted to share with you something a friend of mine

shared with our homeschool group.

I just thought it was too good not 

to share with all of you.

So go grab yourself a cup of tea or coffee 

and a pad of paper just in case you 

want to jot some things down.

Think of this more as a challenge...

A February Challenge

💗

Really examine your relationship with your husband. 

Are you honoring him? 

Do you respect him? 

Do you love him? 

Really think about it, 

do you put the kids before your husband? 

Take some time today to pray about your 

relationship with your husband. 

Ask God to help you to make this 

relationship a priority, 

read His Word and examine your heart.

  Be intentional! 

Have you thought about how you

 are going to be intentional

in your relationship with your husband? 

We are continually thinking and changing how 

we can better teach our children,

 but what we often miss is that 

daily we are teaching them through our attitude and actions. 

They watch how we honor, respect 

and love our husbands ... 

Or how we dishonor, disrespect or 

don't love our husbands. 

We are showing them what marriage looks 

like & this will affect their future marriage.

 Some of us may have not had a 

good example in our parents, 

but we can change it for our children.

If you are divorced this looks different for you,

 but you may still have a relationship 

with your children's father.

 Pray and ask God how He wants your attitude

 and actions to look like to your ex-husband.

 This is not going to be easy, 

but God will help you.

I am praying for each one of you as you seek God 

and be intentional with this relationship. 

Be Blessed Ladies!

Have a delightful and uplifting week...

Sunsets...and an Anniversary!

Sunsets are the most glorious gift from God!

Each one has it's very own unique design.

Splashes of beautiful colors...

Purples, pinks, yellows and blues.

Even on nights that are cold and snowy

they all tell a story.

God sure knew what he was doing 

when he painted the night skies...

News from the Homestead....

How are you all?

How is the New Year treating you thus far?

We are all trying to get back into a routine.  

My oldest is taking driving classes

 with an instructor this week.

 These classes are mandatory!

He'll be getting his license next month!

He has one more day after today.

My hubby and I will be celebrating our 

20th Anniversary next week!

So I've been celebrating since the first!

20 years is a huge deal!!

I've been trying to slow down...

Life is like a fast moving whirl wind.

I want to enjoy the days as they go by,

not wonder where the day went...

My word for the New Year is:

PAUSE

I'm going to pause before the Lord daily.

Pause and take things as they come.

To pause and reflect before continuing forward.

Pause...take a break more often!

Did you get a word or a phrase for the year?

I'd love to hear, if you'd like to share!

Have a great day!

No Bake Chocolate Bars...

Hello There!

How is your week going?

Do you have any special plans for the week?

It is my anniversary and we have lots to celebrate!

19 years of marriage is a big deal!

 So why not start my Celebration Week 

with a yummy easy sweet treat!

Enjoy!!

* * * * * * * * * * *

These are my absolute favorite chocolate bars

these have been made many times through out the years!

No Bake chocolate bars

1 c butter

1/2 c packed brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla

3 c quick oats

1 c chocolate chips

1/2 c peanut butter

grease a 9x9 inch pan. melt butter.

 add sugar and vanilla. 

mix well. stir in oats. 

cook over low heat 2-3 minutes. 

press half of mixture into pan.

melt chocolate chips. 

stir in peanut butter. 

pour chocolate mixture over oat mix. 

crumble remaining oat mixture 

over chocolate layer. 

pressing gently.

cover and refrigerate 

2-3 hours before serving.

Blessings & Hugs,

House Remodel Update...

Our House Remodel is almost complete!

Just a few more added touches and our covered porch is completed.

Next, we'll be building my in laws covered porch 

and then roofing the homes once the weather cools down.

We will also be getting new screen doors and our main doors

will be painted Geranium Red! Yahoo!

Once our doors are finished and my in laws covered porch is done

I'll post a few more pictures.  

Until then, enjoy the photos...

Here's our home before construction began.

It's pretty beat up...

Here's my in laws home before...

Choosing colors...

This was a very hard task for us.

I think my house had a total of  7 colors on it before we decided!

Getting ready to pour new concrete...

Got rid of the wooden deck and got a new cement slab...

No more snakes can hide underneath this...

New sidewalks made...

(This joins my house to Roxy's)

~Yes and if you haven't figured it out by now

Roxy from Living From Glory To Glory is my mom in law!~

(Smiles)

My In Laws after picture...

Isn't is such a pretty color?

The main green color is called Bull Frog

and the trim color is called Tempered Sage

It's top of the line Sherwin Williams Paint!

Beginning stages of building our covered porch...

Choosing the right rusted metal...

This is an actual antique, 

they don't make small ridged corrugated metal anymore.

Hubby cutting the metal to fit on my gable...

The porch is up and ready for the metal...

Hubby getting the metal into position...

First piece is up... 

Finished with getting it all up...

A closer view of what it looks like finished...

Don't you just love the way it looks?

My very rustic bell hanging from 

a unique piece of wood we found...

Love it!

Finally finished...

What do you all think?

The two poles up front have a slight bend in them

creating a unique look to our rustic porch...

Some added red accents around our homes...

Love my RED!

Even our swing set got a new coat of RED paint!

This has been a long process, but I think the outcome is

AMAZINGLY AWESOME!

God was so good to us,

we got amazing deals along the way...

And we are truly Blessed!

I hope you all have a Wonderfully Blessed Week!

Hiking,Sliding and Bear Tracks OH MY!...

Hello All!

We have made it back from our little 

mini vacation to the mountains!

It was such a nice trip and I will post pictures

 when I have a chance to download them.

I did want to share a little fun (exhausting) 

family hike we went on while we were up there.

First off, my oldest son, Clayton says" I'm the leader!"

(I should have known to stay at camp at that moment)

So, we carried on to a trail up the road.

Mind you it's me, my hubby (in shorts) and my three boys.

My hubby says as we are walking, this should be an easy trail, 

they won't go far, we should be fine in shorts.  

Ya right! NOT!

The first half an hour walk was beautiful and scenic...

then... well let's just say we came to large boulders next to a dry creek bed,

my son, "The Leader" says come on, follow me.  

Ugh, okay?! How do you expect me to get up that?

Oh come on mom, it's easy!

Ya right! NOT! 

Easy, my eye...

After my hubby pushed me up the boulder, 

we were off hiking a bit harder by then...

Did I mention I was in shorts?

Scrape #1...

Then the supposed trail got a little thicker 

with poky bushes and more large rocks to climb. 

Scrapes and Scratch #10

Beautiful view, lots of deer...

We get to the very tippy, tippy top of this large beautiful mountain

and my hubby has to point out that there is a tree 

that has been freshly clawed by a bear trying to dig out termites!

I say Whaaaat?!!!!!!!!

I moved a little quicker through that part of the woods.

And, then my son says "oh and look at all the turned over rocks,

those bears must be hungry!" 

Seriously, Whaaaat?!!!!!

I was practically running up the steep mountain at this point.

While slipping and sliding...

I thought I was gonna pass out from fear and heat exhaustion!

(there was a bear running around up there, 

thankfully we never saw him)

Boys...

So, we get to the very top of the mountain where 

there is literally cactus and 

yucca plants growing because we are so high up. 

 (Like in the nose bleed section) 

Ya, that high!

And we start to climb down very carefully, we are slipping and sliding

 trying to hold on to whatever non thorny thing you 

can grab on to and my youngest son, 

Marshall drops his survival bag, doesn't know where it fell off at, 

so we had to search for his bag back up the mountain.

I was getting very tired and irritated at this point.

Thinking of ways become the Leader of this Hike!

Thankfully we found it and headed back down the mountain.

Whew....

Finally after a 2 1/2 mile hike in the wilderness for over 2 hours

we made it to camp in one piece....

well...sorta....

my legs were scratched and banged up pretty good.

Scrapes and Scratches #... I lost count!

I laughed so hard at one point, 

when I almost slid down the last part 

of the steep mountain to the road, 

it was either laugh or cry and I chose to Laugh!

Just for the Record (if anyone cares)

Clayton is no longer aloud to be the leader 

without telling us his official game plan

and the level of hiking we will be enduring!

Sheesh... I was one tired, worn out mama!

I should note that I have a let's just say

 a Gracefulness about me

 when walking on solid ground...

So when you get me on a

 rough trail like this one was well...

it was interesting to say the least.

Made the day full of laughter and stories!!

I'm so glad to be home...

Till next time,

Take a walk and enjoy the scenery if you can,

And watch out for BEARS!!!

Hugs,

The Shopping Hunt...

There's a lesson in this I just know there is!

Have you ever been shopping with your husband?

Who hasn't?!

Did you really enjoy the experience or does it sometimes feel 

like you are indeed hunting with the game warden?

There has been many times, when we were a much younger couple, 

(before our kids came along) we would actually enjoy shopping together. 

We got to take our time and look for the best deals, 

even though it wasn't so much for saving those dimes at the time.

I remember the one time I sent my hubby to the store by himself, 

he came home with a 5 pound can of peas!

Ick!  Canned peas are mushy and just plain icky!

I remember looking at him and saying

 "what am I suppose to do with this?"

He tells me "It was a really good deal!"

And?....

I held onto that can for years... 

It was always a great conversational subject with all our friends!

And Now that we have kids... well, that's for another time!

Just kidding....

If I go shopping with my hubby now (with kids) it's get in,

 look for the best dime saving deal and hurry to get out.

It's like you never even got to look at anything 

that you thought you might wanted to look at.

Rush, rush, rush!

Plus, if your kids stay in the store for too long they 

start to get the "wanty bug" and then your dime saving 

becomes way outta your price range.

The joys of a shopping mama.....

To be honest with you friends,

I'm not much for the whole shopping 

experience anymore either, quite frankly.

It was fun being a newlywed and a new mama,

But, now it's just seems to be that daunting chore....

Oh My...

I think I have turned into the game warden now!! HA!

I had a point this this post, 

but I'm not really sure where I was going with it.

I just thought the photo was hilarious and maybe 

we all just needed a good laugh today!

Yep, that's what it was!

Did I make you laugh?

Great... I've done my good deed for the day!

Take time to be a little silly!

Blessings,

Our Family Camping Trip

 

A few weeks ago, my hubby wanted to take the boys on a Coyote/Camping trip

So.... we got the camper all ready and headed up to the mountains for 5 days! 

It was a long trip up there!!  3 1/2 hours later and we finally reached our destination!

Isn't it just beautiful??

 

 

It took us awhile to get camp set up and everything put in its place for our stay!

And all three of my boys slept in the tent.

WOO HOO!

 

 Noah and Marshall immediately got their suits on to go play in the creek behind our camp!

 

 Noah got stuck in the mooky muck and he was stuck bad! 

 He almost cried when his BB Gun got the muck on it!

 

Noah is our little lumberjack! 

 He cut down this 60 foot tree with just an ax!!

And this was within the first hour we arrived at camp!

(All Smiles)

 Little Marshall loves to stream fish with his daddy!

He caught 3 brook trout and ate them at every meal!

 

 My hubby standing in front of the storage shed near the living quarters of the mine.

It's so amazing how the old miners lived back then.

That's always been fascinating to me.

If only these walls could talk........

 

 This is how we fish.... Redneck style!

Clayton's showing us how it's done!

 

 This was the coolest thing ever!

A butterfly landed on my hubby's hat and never left.

The butterfly has always been his sign from the Lord.

Amazing, isn't it??

 

 Now, if you look real close, this tree stump looks like an elephant with his trunk up high!

I thought it was such an amazing picture and I captured it just for you all to see!

It's so awesome that God can create something so amazing in a tree stump!

 

 We found baby acorns on one of our walks.

Aren't they so cute?

 

 This is one of the many mines we saw while driving to Bonanza

(on a very bumpy, need four wheel drive kind of roads)

And... we loved every minute of it!!

And, after many attempts at getting a picture, this was one of the better ones.

We were laughing so hard, I'm actually surprised we got any good ones :)

 

This was one of my favorite mines.  It's so rustic!

 

Noah trying to figure out who lives in the old bunker home.

There was a rather large nest of some sort in the inside.

He chose to stay outside!  Good choice if you ask me :)

 

 

 

And this concludes a glimpse into our camping trip!  We have many more pictures, but I picked out some of the better ones for you all to enjoy!  We love to camp and have been to just about all the mountains in our beautiful state of Colorado!

 

I won't be going on the next camping trip, for that will be for "Boys Only."

Which is fine by me because I don't like to hunt!!

(Smiling)

So, if my hubby and son get an elk, I'll post that at a later date!

 

Have a wonderful week!!

 

Blessings,