My Daddy's 50th Birthday is today....We did have a surprise birthday party for him the other day. He had so many family members and old friends show up....can't you tell how surprised he was! I love it! He didn't suspect a thing. He had a great time catching up with friends and spending time with family as well. I love him so much and am very thankful to have him as my daddy. We are so much alike. Love the Lord, country, simple life, old times, love big band music, being with family, home-cooked food, coffee, and much more. I am so blessed that God gave me to him to take care of as his daughter. He is a great father and I will cherish our times together. Love you Da Da..(he loves when I call him that.) Happy Birthday!


The Lord said, "I have chosen him so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just. Genesis 18:19

Here are our pumpkins this year. They're a little spooky, but the boys love them. Carving pumpkins is a tradition that we will carry on for a very long time. This is what they look like at night on our porch with the candles inside them. However they are starting to wilt already:( I am going to have to get some more to decorate. I love decorating. This time of year there are so many ways to decorate with Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas on the way. I love it. After we cleaned out the pumpkins I made pumpkin seeds. They are good and good for you. We had a great family day together. Here are a few recipes from Our Best Bites...Have a blessed day.

















Toasted Pumpkin Seeds
From ourbestbites.com


1/2 C pumpkin seeds, clean and dry, 1/2 T butter, 1/4 t olive oil, 1/4 t celery salt, 1/4 t onion, 1/8 garlic, 1/8 paprik, a pinch cayenne, Kosher salt


















Homemade Pumpkin Puree
From ourbestbites.com

Step 1: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Slice pumpkin in half and remove stem. You can cut it in quarters if you want, or just leave it halved. It doesn't really matter. I cut mine in quarters so you could see the insides better.

Step 2: Using a spoon, scrape out all of the stringy stuff and the seeds. If you want to toast the seeds make sure to save all this junk in a bowl and not the trash can! You'll be left with just the pumpkin rind and the flesh as shown here:

Step 3: Spray a foil-lined baking sheet with non-stick spray. Place your pumpkin cut-side down on the sheet.

Step 4: Cook pumpkin in your 350 degree oven for 50-60 minutes or until it's tender when pierced with a fork. When done, remove from oven and let cool on the baking sheet.

Step 5: Use a spoon to scrape out the flesh and discard the skin/rind. It should be super soft and easy to scoop right out, kind of like scooping out an avocado.

Step 6: Place pumpkin pulp in a food processor and process until smooth. (Or you can just mash it with a fork or potato masher) Now. If your pumpkin is on the dry side, you can add a little water (or juice depending on what you're making) at this point to get the consistency you want. My pumpkin was dry and I was aiming for the consistency of canned pumpkin so I slowly drizzled in about 1/4 cup of water until it had the right feel. If it's too moist, just put your puree in a strainer to let some of the moisture seep through.

At this point you can use it in any recipe that calls for pumpkin puree or canned pumpkin.

The Lord is good to all; He has compassion on all He has made. Psalm 145:9

So I've still been doing a lot of baking. I made 3 loaves of bread the other day and it was gone the day after. I know that's a lot of bread, but we love some bread. So, since we've eaten so much I decided to get some whole wheat flour....to make it a little healthier. I think it's gonna turn out great. I usually make mine in the bread maker, but I recently got this recipe from "Farming on Faith" and it was amazing. I love it so much. So, I'll probably make some this afternoon or tomorrow. I usually make about a loaf every other day....but with the way we're eating it, I would like to try and make a little more. I've also thought about making some loaves and wrapping them in pretty paper and giving them as Christmas gifts. I think my family and friends would love it. You can always use bread, and there's nothing like homemade bread.
Also, yesterday my hubby finished painting our living room. I am sooo excited. This summer while I was away at church camp he and the kiddos suprised me with re-texturing the walls in the living room and hallway. So since then there have been no pictures on my walls....it was driving me a little bit crazy. I love decor....so not having anything up until we painted was hard. But thank the Lord, it is now finished and looks great! I will soon be putting my pics and decor back on the walls and it will look as cozy as ever.
I will praise you forever for what you have done; in your name I will hope, for your name is good. I will praise you in the presence of your saints. Psalm 52:9

I love pictures like these. Beautiful fall leaves falling from the trees. Today was a chilly day. I absolutely love it. I love this time of year. It is probably my favorite as far as seasons....but I do love Christmas time too. I'm hoping it will stay like this and then the leaves will be turning their wonderfully vibrant colors around here. They are a little bit already. Driving around I see colorful spots on the trees where the foliage is setting in.

The kids picked out a couple of pumpkins to set on the front porch the other day. I had to explain to them that they weren't the ones we were going to carve, they were just for decoration right now. We will soon go to the pumpkin patch and pick out about 3 or 4 large pumpkins and carve them together. It's one of our favorite things to do as a family. For now, I've gotten all my Halloween and even some Thanksgiving decorations out and have set them up around the house. The house is filled with smells from Hazelnut Cream and Pumpkin Spice candles, fresh baking bread, cookies, and yummy dinners in the crock pot. I am so blessed. Thank you Lord.

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. Ephesians 1:3

Here is a little poem that my Dad sent me. I love it. It reminds me of when I was little and my Great Mammaw would be in the kitchen cookin for her family. She was the best cook. I loved being there with all my family around spending time together....I love the simple life.


I don't think our kids know what an apron is. The principal use of Grandma's apron was to protect the dress underneath, because she only had a few, it was easier to wash aprons than dresses and they used less material, but along with that, it served as a potholder for removing hot pans from the oven. It was wonderful for drying children's tears, and on occasion was even used for cleaning out dirty ears. From the chicken coop, the apron was used for carrying eggs, fussy chicks, and sometimes half-hatched eggs to be finished in the warming oven. When company came, those aprons were ideal hiding places for shy kids. And when the weather was cold, grandma wrapped it around her arms. Those big old aprons wiped many a perspiring brow, bent over the hot wood stove. Chips and kindling wood were brought into the kitchen in that apron. From the garden, it carried all sorts of vegetables. After the peas had been shelled, it carried out the hulls. In the fall, the apron was used to bring in apples that had fallen from the trees. When unexpected company drove up the road, it was surprising how much furniture that old apron could dust in a matter of seconds. When dinner was ready, Grandma walked out onto the porch, waved her apron, and the men knew it was time to come in from the fields to dinner. It will be a long time before someone invents something that will; replace that 'old-time apron' that served so many purposes. Send this to those who would know, and love, the story about Grandma's aprons. Or it can be a good history lesson for those that have no idea how the apron played a part in our lives. REMEMBER: Grandma used to set her hot baked apple pies on the window sill to cool. Her granddaughters set theirs on the window sill to thaw. They would go crazy now trying to figure out how many germs were on that apron. I don't think I ever caught anything from an apron. But Love !!
Without Him, I am nothing, but with Him 'I can do all things through Christ which strengthened me'. Philippians 4:13.

Friendship

John 15:13

Jesus said, "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends."



I love this verse because it is one of many that shows how much God loved and loves us. He laid down His life for us, so that we may live.


The Lord has also given us people in this world that we are so blessed to know....and my best friend Catherine is one of those people. I am so blessed to know her. We have been friends for about 11 years, and of course with any friendship we've had our moments of ups and downs; but our friendship is one that I will cherish forever. I truely believe that God has given us one another to keep us steady and to help us get through anything life brings us. Of course we understand this kind of friendship because we have God in our lives and understand what it means to be a friend, and to be the kind of friend God wants us to be for each other and also for others. Friends are a wonderful gift from God.

Everyone can have this kind of friendship with God. All you have to do is know Him as your personal Savior. "God our Savior saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy spirit." Titus 3:5 I pray today that others will recieve this perfect and precious gift, and have a friend.....a true friend for life.

I LOVE this time of year. The leaves starting to change, the cooler nights, all we need now is cooler days. I got out my fall decor the other day and started putting some of it up. I need to get more though. Every year, I try to add to my collection of decorations for each season. I love to decorate and make my home feel as cozy as I can. My favorite thing to do is drink coffee with my yummy creamer and watch a good family movie with my hubby and kids.
This pic was taken at the pumpkin patch last year. I hope it is cooler this year than it was then. We love the pumpkin patch and go every year to pick out some big pumpkins to carve together. We always find the cutest designs. This year along with carving, the kids and I have decided we are going to paint the pumpkins and put cute faces on them too. I thought that would be a fun craft we could do together.
We are already watching "Hocus Pocus"....our favorite Halloween movie, along with "Winnie the Pooh...Boo to you Too", and "Pooh's Heffalump Halloween Movie." The kids love helping me decorate too. I love looking forward to the seasons as they come. Each one is special to me. I hope you can find something special in each one as well. God has given us beauty in each one.

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. James 1:17