Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Happy 279th Birthday General Washington!

"Be courteous to all, but intimate with few, and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence."

"I hope I shall possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an honest man."


"If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter."

"It is impossible to rightly govern a nation without God and the Bible."

"Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire, called conscience."
~George Washington

To celebrate General George Washington's birthday this year, Faith made a decadent Washington pie, which is really a layered cake with raspberry, or in our case cherry, jam in between. Faith made it particularly beautiful this year with a powder sugar snow flake on top.



Washington Pie

From the Tasha Tudor Cook Book

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs at room temperature
1 2/3 cups flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup milk
1-2 cups of raspberry or cherry jam

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease and flour or put wax paper in two 8 inch
cake pans In large bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, beat til light. Mix in flour and
baking powder alternating with milk. Beat til light and fluffy. Pour batter into the 2 prepared
cake pans. Bake 25-30 minutes. Let cool 10 minutes, then invert and remove wax paper, let
cool. Slice cakes in half, and place one 1/2 on serving platter. spread with 1/3 of the Jam,
repeat twice more and top with fourth layer. Refrigerate til serving. Top with powder sugar.


Cut cake into generous slices, place on pretty china,


and Enjoy!!

~Chs

Bird Sighting

Another event on this snowy Monday, was the spotting of a group of birds out in the field pecking away trying to find some leftover seeds. At first Josiah thought that these were just some little Juncos but on a closer look we saw they were anything but!

They were Horned Larks and while we had admired them very much in our Audubon bird book we had never seen them in person, and were very much delighted to have this opportunity.


They were the cutest little fellows and there were exactly a dozen of them in all. They really did not seem to mind Faith or I watching them, and we both looked to our hearts delight till the little flock departed for a better part of the field. We are very grateful to be able to add another one of God's unique birds to our "seen" list.

~Chs

Monday, February 21, 2011

The Return of the Snow

We all knew that the warm spell (see previous post) could not last, but still deep down in our hearts I think we were all hoping that it would, even when we knew that it shouldn't. But God knows best and thankfully He controls the weather not us, so just when we were all getting used to the idea of spring, He sent along a doozy of a snow storm to wake us out of our fancies.

The snow came down steadily all Sunday afternoon and by the time of our awakening on Monday morning eight inches of fresh snow was laid on the ground.


Our faithful snow team was out bright and early clearing the driveway so Josh could go to work, but there was so much snow that they were still working hard at it long after Josh departed.


We are very thankful for our sturdy little tractor. He plows our snow in the winter and cuts our grass (or more accurately, dandelions) in the summer.


After lunch, Josiah and I headed out back to see what we could see, and were pleasantly surprised at all the unique sights that the wet snow had helped to create. It had landed on the reeds making them look like they were wearing funny little top hats.


When we had finished admiring the stream we both headed back to the glade. Josiah rushed on ahead of me but I thought nothing of it and continued on my blissful way taking pictures and suspecting nothing.


So imagine my surprise and disgust, when as I walked into the glade a huge pile of snow dropped from its resting place and landed directly on my head. Upon looking up I saw this naughty little boy in high glee shaking branches above my head. My goodness!!!

Josiah, after getting down from the tree, let me in on the secret of how to create your very own snow blizzard.


First find yourself a nice pile of snow, and begin to toss the snow around in a frantic manner. Make sure you do this for some length of time and with enough ferocity.


Soon you will look, to any observers, some what like the above picture. In short, nearly invisible. Your Homemade blizzard is now complete, but just a warning to those inclined to "give it a try". After it is all said and done......

You will probably look a little bit like this.=)

~Chs

The Melt Down and a Sunny Walk with Friends

Slowly but surely the temperatures rose last week, gently warming the snow and creating our second melt down of this winter season. While it was a nice break from the cold, I personally am struggling not to be discontent and long for spring too much;) as we all knew that the warm spell would not last. (as will be shown in the following post)

One day it was extremely sunny and very pleasant, even though it was just in the high thirties. Baby enjoyed it so much that she stayed outside most of the afternoon soaking up all the Vitamin D she could.


The same gorgeous afternoon I released my Duckies out of their pen and gave them a stroll around the yard. They thought about joining the chickens in their house, but thankfully thought better of it and contented themselves with waddling around in the puddles.


Despite the gentleness of the melt, all the snow turned into water was too much for our little pond, especially because all the land around us drains all it's water into our backyard. The ducks loved it but it created for quite a bit of slogging around for us humans.


On Saturday we decided to take advantage of the sunny afternoon and go for our February hike at Beaver Lake trails. We asked along Mr. Reiche as well as a few of the Bryson girls and headed out ready for adventure!


One of the first objects that attracted our attention was the cutest little chipmunk scurrying around int leaves, of course he did not stick around long enough for a proper picture, but I think this one of him diving off the log is pretty adorable anyways.


One of the reasons for this walk was our search for the first of the skunk cabbage. To our great surprise and over bounding delight, we found not one, but dozens and dozens of the little plants poking out of the cold moist dirt. It is amazing how early they will venture out of hibernation and even though they are not stunningly beautiful, nor at all nice smelling, they hold a place in our hearts as one of the first plants seen in spring.


Though it was all gone at our house, here, the ice still retained a hold on the lakes and marshes, just enough to add to the beauty.


On our way to our final destination we made our way up to pinnacle peak, as the Bryson girls had never before reached the summit.


Our true destination however, was the old ruins of the house that once proudly stood here. All that is left of it now is the steps going up to the house and a few broken rocks indicating a foundation.


A few yards away from the house ruins is an old empty well. It is still all intact and the way the stones are so neatly and firmly put all the way around the sides was quite a tribute to the builder.


Moss is slowly taking over the surface and creating a quiet picturesque look to the abandoned well.


A lovely afternoon was had by all as we partook of some healthy exercise and enjoyed the beauty of God's creation. The old foundations also reminded me of these verses;

"Whoever comes to Me, and hears My sayings and does them, I will show you whom he is like: He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently against that house, and could not shake it, for it was founded on the rock.
But he who heard and did nothing is like a man who built a house on the earth without a foundation, against which the stream beat vehemently; and immediately it fell. And the ruin of that house was great.”
Luke 6:47-49

~Chs

Sunday, February 20, 2011

A Valentine Tea Party

Happy belated Valentines Day everyone!!

This year I hosted a tea party for some young ladies on Valentine's Day. Two years ago we had an impromptu tea party with some of the same friends around Valentine's Day as well and as they were so much enjoyed then, we did some of the same crafts this time with added flourish.


After all the ladies had arrived, we gathered in the family room and began to create some beautiful beeswax candles.


The girls different interests and characters showed through in there candle making and provided an abundant variety of designs.

The next craft we moved onto also related to candles. We made rose candle holders for our just created beeswax candles.


We each took a small glass candle holder and picked out the colors of rose petals that we wanted and then with the help of the official hot glue gun user (Faith) we glued the selected petals onto the bottom of the candle holder.


They turned out so beautiful and the ladies were so creative. Some made more than one holder to pair with their multiple candles.


Once we were finished we had quite a little garden of rose candles of all colors grouped on the table.


Our crafts finished we began our afternoon tea, which besides tea of course included all sorts of dainty refreshments.


Almost all the snacks had a valentines theme of some short. In fact we quite shocked Josiah by cutting even the cheese in heart shapes!!;)


Then of course there was the miscellaneous assortment of accompanying cookies to be eaten with our delicious tea.


The crowning delectable dessert on the table however was a stunning chocolate peppermint torte, which according to all the ladies (and gentlemen) tasted just as "sweet" as it looks.


After tea we played a most amusing game, with the quaint name, "Biographical Nonsense". It was immensely funny and we all enjoyed it very much.

We are very thankful for the sweet young ladies that we are proud to call our friends, and we pray that God will bless them and help us all to become women who do everything for His glory!

~Chs

PS. Thanks to Grace for the majority of the beautiful pictures.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Treck Through the Woods


Last Saturday found 5 of us along with Mr. Reiche at our local Nature Sanctuary. You see, one of our "resolutions" this year was to take a hike at this Sanctuary and also at a nearby state game area once a month. The February walk is now marked off.


The snow was still very deep and Baby was quite the little snow plow. We all slugged on after her (Baby always likes to be first;) enjoying the cold beauty around us.


There are quite a number of small lakes on the sanctuary as well as a windy stream, but they were all still very frozen over.


There were so many interesting details that we were able to see as we traversed the path, God's creation is so amazing and diverse, even in the "dead of winter".

~Chs

Grace is Home!!!


Yep, that's right after a 6 week sojourn (visiting John and Mandi) in Texas, Grace has finally returned to her native environment. By all signs she is happy to be back too, we sure are! We love you Gracey girl!!

~Chs

Monday, February 14, 2011

Duckies in the Bathtub!!


So, the other day my duckies escaped from their enclosure and finally were placed in the small hole in the pond that has not frozen. The only problem being that the hole was full of rust and dirt... the result - yucky duckies.;) Therefore, I carried them into the house and placed them in our "clean" tub.


My, didn't they have fun? They splashed, play fought, bit the water coming out of the faucet, and hid behind the shower curtain, and peeked out at me. =) Such fun!!!


After a while, they let me know that they were done, and then preceded to clean/dry themselves off. They were so cute wandering around the bathroom. Dick hasn't been in here since he was a duckling, and Tommy never has entered that portion of the house before in his little ducky life. They had so much fun that I had to make sure they understood that this was not a daily thing!

~Chs