Fire Fighter
My son, James, has his first real job. He applied this week with the Harlan Fire Department. Yesterday was his first day of training. Last night Papa John’s caught on fire – not bad apparently because the fire fighters received a free pizza for their help. And this morning – just a little while ago in fact, I heard the sirens and ran out my door just in time to see the big truck driving past my house with my son sitting in the front seat. I am not sure which neighbor’s house is on fire, yet. I feel terrible and am praying that their home and family is okay. I will find out this afternoon whose house it was. Whenever a home burns, I think of how blessed I am. I can’t even imagine losing my home.
UPDATE: I was glad to find out that it was just a forest fire on the mountain and not a neighbor’s home.
Around My Garden in April
I love spring time. I love watching as my flowers bloom. Here are a some photos from around our yard I took this weekend that I want to share with you.
I was so excited when I saw the above photo of the bee – notice he is in flight!! What a perfect photo!
Eastern Kentucky Campmeeting Sabbath
We had a wonderful Sabbath. I taught Sabbath School for the younger children. I ended up teaching kids from both my Harlan and Belcher churches. I think attendance was down this year somewhat because of the economy. Anyway, we sung songs and learned about God’s love for us. And I had a footwashing and communion with the children. It was a lot of fun and very meaningful.
I forgot to take pictures of the footwashing. Footwashing is something that most churches do not practice any more. Our church does it 4 times a year – once a quarter – along with our communion. (I have three church so times that by three for me.) It reminds us to be humble and to be willing to serve just like Jesus did.
We then had communion. We moved from the room where we had the songs and story, etc. to a room where I had decorated a table with a pretty lace table cloth and the communion plates.
For the craft, I cut out 18″ squares of white flannel and let them decorate their “footwashing towels.”
They turned out really cute!
I will post the lesson I wrote for this a little bit later. It really turned out well!
The Singing of the Birds
“For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land; The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.” Song of Solomon 2:11-13
You know that spring has (unofficially) come when the birds return to your yard aside from the year round Robins, Cardinals and Blue Jays. The verse above is one of my favorites. Beautiful, isn’t it?
Last Friday, my girls and I spent the morning watching the birds in the yard. They were every where! Love birds chasing each other, Sparrows looking for seeds. Downy Woodpeckers pecking away at our suet feeder. Chickadees feeding from our pine cone feeders.
And we saw that our House Finches (male pictured above) have returned. What joy!
Friday, however was especially exciting. We saw a flock of birds in our plum tree that we had never seen before. Hannah was the first to spot them. They had some yellow feathers – we don’t usually see birds here with yellow flowers. I was so excited, I ran outside with my camera and snuck down the hill snapping photos as I went because you just never know when you are going to loose your opportunity.
I got some really good photos. Afterward, I came in and we looked at the close ups of the photos and we got out our bird field guide
(notice the identifying marks above: yellow tipped tail and the red tip on the wing)
Spring is just my favorite time of year!
Children of the Mountains: ABC 20/20
Last Night, ABC aired a documentary with Dianne Sawyer about central Appalachia where I live. I didn’t watch it last night, but I did watch it a little while ago on their website. You can click on the link below to watch it.
You can also read the article here.
Harlan (my hometown) was mentioned once in the Part 3: Fighting for Survival in conjunction with prescription pain pill addictions. I recognized most of the towns mentioned… all close to here.
I love living here in Harlan County. I truly love it here. Not everyone is poor. But the cycle of poverty is rampant. Quite frequently we receive calls for folks needing food or money on their electric bills. It is always heartbreaking.
However, I want to say that while it is good that the poverty is brought to light for the rest of the country to see, it is quite unfortunate that the stereotypes about “mountain people” were played upon in this documentary. Not everyone is like that here. In fact, most folks are down right good people. Harlan is a wonderful place to live and to raise a family. It is a safe place to live. Most crime here is domestic, which is terribly sad, but that means if you have a good family, you aren’t likely to be bothered. I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else. God has called us to these mountains and I am thankful.
Snow Day In Harlan
February Already
I can hardly believe that we are two days into February! These last three weeks since I posted last have been so busy, I haven’t had much time to even turn on the computer. We had family staying with us for over a week, plus I have been reorganizing my school closets – (shall we say… not fun!) and I have been focusing more on my piano practicing.
I have been canning again! Last week I did 3 batches of my very own Strawberry Kiwi Jam, and 1 batch of Strawberry Marmalade. Yesterday I did 2 batches of Blueberry Jam. I am gearing up to do a few batches of Kiwi Jam and Kiwi Marmalade today and tomorrow.
It is snowing today. Kentucky has been very hard hit this last week. Fortunately, our county was just south of the line where the ice storm hit last week. We had thought we were going to be hit, but then all of a sudden, it moved north of us. We just got some snow and very bad wind. However, it has been very, very cold – for weeks now it seems. Yesterday was pleasant and sunny – a nice respite! But the cold is back and we are enjoying the fireplace and the coziness of doing schoolwork and other projects near the fire.
One of my goals, that I did not mention in my last post was my desire to cook big, hearty breakfasts for my family everyday. I have been very consistent with this! The first few days when we had homemade biscuits for three days in a row, the kids were amazed and very excited. I have to say that it has made all the difference in the world with how our mornings go. I get up early enough to have my prayer and devotion, with enough time to wake the kids and cook breakfast and be eating by 7 or 7:30 in the morning. The kids are roused from the bed easier too. Certain children (who will go unnamed) of mine enjoy snuggling down deeper in the covers when I wake them in the mornings. We follow breakfast with our morning worship.
And, I have to confess, that I have been waking at 5:30 am with urges like cleaning out the refrigerator! I have made a ritual of waking. After my devotions, I lite 5 or 6 candles in my kitchen. It is still dark outside at that time of the morning and I let the candles burn for a couple of hours. I do this again as I clean the kitchen after our evening meal. My husband noticed my new ritual and went and bought me two new huge bags of tea lights (which I primarily use in my candle holders for quick clean up) so I wouldn’t run out.
Today’s Menu:
Breakfast: Blueberry Pancakes with Real Maple Syrup and Hashbrown Patties
Lunch: Vegetable Barley Soup with Homemade Cheese Crackers and Greek Salad
Supper: Pot Pie with Homemade Biscuit Topping, Sweet Potato Casserole and Steamed Califlower
I haven’t had a chance to finish this week’s menu, but will work on that later today!
8 Days and Counting…
Does anyone else besides me watch the news around the clock (or listen to talk radio)? I am obsessed with politics! I find myself praying over my candidate when I see him on TV. I am so afraid of where this country is headed. I am hoping I can rejoice on election day. I am not looking forward to PED (post election depression)! Don’t think that your vote doesn’t count! Every vote is important.
Anyway, other news…. we had some snow here in Harlan County today. I didn’t watch the weather forecast and actually hung up laundry this afternoon (towels) And they are currently freezing on the line! I have heard that the Farmer’s Almanac is predicting a very hard winter. It is interesting to read about their 20 Signs of a Hard Winter. Homeschoolers may especially enjoy that.
I am hoping to make Apple Pie tomorrow … I also have lots more apples to can. I wonder how cold it can be outside before it is too late to pick the apples off the tree? They got two inches of snow today at Julina’s house where the apple trees are. Hmmm…
Harlan County Library
New House…
Well, we got the new house for my step-daughter Julina and her family! We are so excited we can hardly stand it!
As I said before, the house is about 6 miles from my house and on top of the mountain ridge on Little Shepherd Trail. The property has 7 acres, a house, a detached garage, a small barn (stable), space for a nice vegetable garden, 5 or 6 huge apple trees already brimming with ripe apples, some other fruit trees, and an incredible view!
We went out there today and I took some photos, we picked a bag full of apples and they taste so good!
Julina and I are planning to have a garden together next year, can apples, and we want to get a horse or two and some chickens and goats!
However – the real miracle is that we only paid $38,000 for the house, land and all!
Here are some of the photos I took today…
The house has 1500 square feet.
P.S. – excuse the trash – it won’t look like that for long! We are going tomorrow to clean up!
That is Sarah and Hannah – you can see Sarah’s shirt is filled with apples!
Don’t they look yummy!
