Wordless Wednesday

Visiting the Farm Museum

Saturday was moving day for Heather and Andrew.  I was going to try to be there to help, but Laura and Aaron also wanted to help.  As Laura is stronger and more able to carry around boxes, I said I would watch the girls and she could help.  I think I got the better end of that deal!
So the girls came overnight.  We had to go to my Dad's to get his meds set up, and then we made another fun stop!  Their is a Farm Museum about 15 minutes from our house.  They were having a petting zoo on Saturday, so I took the girls.

 The farm museum.

 We entered through the silo.  The view looking up was pretty cool!

 There were lots of little animals to see; chickens, goats, lambs and bunnies.  The girls loved the bunnies best!

They liked watching this little one eat a carrot.

 There were even little rats there.  Ruby wasn't too sure about them, and I must admit I feel the same way!

This activity board showed how corn comes from the field to a cereal box.

 There were other fun things to do, like making a chicken in a nest.

Here's Ruby with hers.

 The thing they liked best was making their own soap.

They made it and them got to come back in 20 minutes to pick it up.

They were both proud of their soaps!

 Outside was a sheep being sheared.

 Look at all that wool!  He looked pretty skinny when he was done.

There was even a young cow.  Alaina liked him, Ruby didn't want to go to close.

There was also face painting, but it had a very long wait.  After standing in line for a while and not moving, I persuaded the girls to let me do it for them at home.

Butterflies on the cheeks = happy girls!

The move went well.  Bob and I went after he got out of work to help put some things together and do a little unpacking.  Such a good day!

It's the most wonderful time of the year...

That phrase comes from a Christmas song, but I think Spring is the most wonderful time of the year!  Fresh air, open windows, warm breezes, blue skies, trees turning green and flowers popping up just makes me happy!
We had beautiful weather last week and many of those things are happening. This weekend we had snow predicted and areas very close to us had several inches of snow.  We did get snow but it didn't stick.  Here's to the end of snow for this year!
Here's a few pics from last week.

 Daffodils blooming!

A tree ready to turn green.

 Wild violets in the woods.

Our dogwood tree just ready to bloom.

 I've seen a few flowering trees in full bloom!

The trees on our road have that hazy look they get right before the leaves pop open.

Beautiful green leaves on some bushes in our back yard.

I love Spring!

For behold, the winter is past; the rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth, the time of singing has come and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land.
Song of Solomon 2:11-12

Friday Funny

Cooking Thursday

Todays recipe is not so much a recipe, but the method I use to make beef roast.  Bob's mom showed it to me when we were first married and I've never found a better way in all those years.  It's easy and the roast turns out tasty and tender.

Mom's Beef Roast

Beef roast, any size
Kitchen Bouquet Browning sauce
water

Brush Kitchen Bouquet over entire roast and place in slow cooker.
Add water so roast is 1/2 to 3/4 submerged.
Cook on low for about 12 hours.
I often start this in the evening, then refrigerate overnight and put it back on in the morning.  It doesn't seem possible to over cook it, the roast gets more tender the longer it cooks.
The broth makes delicious gravy!

Wordless Wednesday

A country road

Last week I brought a meal to a family from our church.  They don't live very close so I ended up driving on some country roads that I haven't driven on before.
I love country roads and seeing new things.  Here's a few photos I took along the drive.

 The first hyacinths I've seen this year!  Such a pretty scene on this hillside.

This made you smile right?  This tree trunk was at the end of a long driveway and it looks like someone decided it needed some paint added.

 Check out this beautiful home!

I came across this old schoolhouse.


And then I saw this - not what I expected to see on a country road in West Michigan!

It's a reproduction of Stonehenge.  I can't imagine what it cost to put this up, buying the stones, cutting them to the right shape and size and then getting them all set up.  It's not something I would want filling my yard up, but it was cool to see!

Thanks for coming along on this ride!

Eggs and finger jello...

The girlies spent the night here Friday night.  Here's a few of the things we did together.

 We had a little goodie bag for Easter that they had fun opening.

Then we stopped to see Bob's Mom.  She's been in the hospital and came to the facility I work at to rehab before returning to the Assisted Living place she lives at.  She's been pretty sick and it's hard to come back from that at 88 years old.  She was happy to see the girls and liked the pictures they drew for her.

I saw these cute finger jello kits in the store, and picked this one up.  When we got home we made jello!

 They are good stirrers!

 The kit came with cutters in the shape of a fish, shark, porpoise and starfish.

 This was Ruby's face when asking if she could have some of the jello pieces that were left.

And here they are tasting them.

 The next day we colored some eggs.

 I saw a way to color eggs where you dripped food coloring onto paper towel, then sprayed it with vinegar water to make it spread out.

 Then you wrap the paper towel around a hard boiled egg, then wrap it with plastic wrap and let it set for an hour.

The girls each did 4 eggs.

 Here's the finished eggs.  They end up with a pattern from the paper towel weave.

They were proud of their finished eggs!

Friday Funny

Wordless Wednesday

Fireplace progress

Last week I showed you some pictures of Heather and Andrews new home and some work they've been doing on it.
The fireplace was an issue.  Someone had the great idea of putting stucco over the front of it and putting stones and glass pebbles into it.

Isn't that a sight?
They planned to work on it after they moved in.  It looked like  it was going to be quite a task, requiring the whole front to be pulled off.

But, Bob and I stopped in on Friday evening so he could patch a hole in the wall.  In the meantime, Andrew was doing something near the fireplace and realized that the stucco was put on a piece of plywood which was attached to the front of the fireplace.  That made him and Bob start looking more and before we knew what was happening, they were getting ready to tear things down!

They started by taking down the mantel, which was not hung straight and was going to come down anyway.

 Look at that!  One big piece coming off!

 Stones and stucco piling up on the floor.

Look at that!  It's not beautiful yet, but what a relief to have those stones gone.  It's going to look great!