A Beautiful...

early birthday present from one of the sweet ladies in our church 

What a nice surprise! :-)

~♥~

Katie brought home the pumpkin and gourds from her field trip yesterday.

I just love decorating in the fall.♥

Now, I'm not fond of bugs, but I *do* think this winking one that Katie carved a couple weeks ago is cute.

He smiled at everyone who drove by. :-)

I hope you're all having a great weekend!

Take care,

~Melanie

simple blessings of summer...

What a treat to have this beautiful rose of sharon by our front door to greet us as we come and go...
 

 bees hard at work...

 

the pretty little crape myrtle given to me for Mother's Day...♥

  daylily...

 a surprise acorn squash plant my husband found...I *do* remember throwing out some seeds earlier in the year! :-)

 fresh blackberries...so juicy when they're warm...straight from the vine to my mouth! Mmmmm....

picking some to share with a neighbor...

  beautiful weather so I can hang the clothes outside...

thankful for the shade and the gentle breeze while I hang them up!

sweet Oreo...

being camera shy...*smile*

Thank You, Lord, for all your blessings!

~Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation. Selah. -Psalm 68:19~

Take care,

~Melanie

Spring Hodgepodge

I believe Spring has finally decided to stay! The flowers are blooming and the birds are singing. I love this time of year!

What a bitterly cold winter we had...lots of snow and ice, which meant some of our school days were canceled, which means they will have to be made up! Unfortunately, our Easter break will be shortened this year. Most everyone wanted to use Easter week rather than go later into the summer...eight weeks 'til summer break! :-)

My last remaining grandparent passed away last month. She'd lived with Alzheimer's for about 15 years. It was hard seeing her like she was for so long, and I'm so happy she's finally in heaven where she longed to be. She loved to play her guitar and sing in church. It seems just about every time I saw her, she had her guitar with her. She had very few material items on this earth, but she was rich spiritually. Her life was a wonderful testimony that left no doubt that she truly walked with Jesus and depended on Him for everything. I'm looking forward to seeing her again! Her funeral service was very nice, and it was good to see family and friends I hadn't seen for many years!

One of the men in our church has been diagnosed with cancer. He has the sweetest family, and I know they would appreciate your prayers on their behalf. One of their friends is having a benefit yard sale for them next Saturday, so I've been gathering up some items to donate to it. I had been collecting some things to give to Goodwill, but I'd much rather donate the items this way!

I briefly mentioned this book, Stepping Heavenward, in a recent post, but I'd like to say a little more about it. This really is one of the best books I have ever read. I recently ordered the study guide that goes with it, and have been getting a lot out of it! I also have a notebook to write about things that I wanted to remember, but wasn't part of the study guide.
This is much more than just a fictional diary. It was written in the 1800's, so the language isn't really 'up-to-date', but it's fairly easy to understand. The study guide helps to bring out the many spiritual aspects of the book. The page numbers don't match up since the two books are from different publishers, but I'm changing the page numbers in my guide as I go.

While I was researching the author, I found out that she wrote for the Youth's Companion, a popular magazine published in the mid to late 1800's. I thought I remembered that name from the Little House book, The Long Winter, so I went and got my book, and sure enough, it was in there! I just thought that was a neat connection. :-)

I believe this book would be a true blessing to you. If you've read it, I'd love to hear your thoughts on it. Please let me know if you decide to read it!

Well, I'd better get back to my housework.  Hope you're all doing well and enjoying the sweet springtime! Thanks for stopping by!

Take care,
~Melanie

A Little of This 'n That

Hi, everyone! I hope you're all having a good week!

Spring is in full swing around here. This is a picture I took yesterday of our azalea bush next to the driveway. I think azaleas are just so pretty.

Things here are going pretty well, just really busy. We have about a month left of school, so we've been getting things ready for our banquet and graduation.

Katie has had a good school year. She's 15 now and finishing 9th grade. Time certainly flies! We're so proud of her.

She's planning to go with one of our local churches on a missions trip to Mexico and Guatemala in August. We went through the passport application process earlier this week, and she should have her passport in a month or two. She's so excited to be going, and I pray it will be a good experience for her. Her group will be fundraising almost every weekend this summer, but I think it's good that they work to earn their funds.

We helped some friends of ours move over the weekend, and it really got me motivated to go through our own stuff and get rid of it! I've filled three big trash bags for Goodwill. It's amazing how quickly stuff can accumulate!

I'll probably work on the garage next, but not until I set off some bug bombs. I hate to be surprised by those huge spiders!! Yikes!

I haven't updated on Tanya in a while, but she is doing much better! They started her on a 4th type of chemo, and it seems to be working well. Her tumors have shrunk about 50% and she's having more energy. She did say the other day that more cancer was found in her arm, so she's getting treatment for that. We're all encouraged by the news, and are just continuing to pray for her. Thank you so much for your prayers.

I'm glad you stopped by today. I so enjoy reading your comments, and having my own little set of friends here in the blogosphere. Y'all are awesome!♥

Take care,

~Melanie

Back From My Break!

Hi, everyone! I've missed you all, and I hope you're having a great weekend. Things have been quite busy here. I've enjoyed my break. I'm not sure what my future blogging may be like, so I'll just take it a day at a time. :)

We're in our last nine weeks of the year - time just seems to fly by! I've been busy with end of quarter reports and the students' SAT's. Katie also had a pretty bad case of poison ivy, but it's finally clearing up. She was on Prednisone for a week, and the doctor recommended Ivarest. It helped tremendously!

We've been out of school this week for our Easter break. We spent the week with our families and had a very nice time. I thought you might like to see some of Katie's random pictures she took this week. I think she takes great pictures!


Road behind Mom and Dad's house


Field of yellow flowers in West Virginia


Pink dogwood against a beautiful blue sky


Inside our church on Easter Sunday


Lilacs at my parents' house




Katie didn't take this picture. This is what I found on my kitchen counter a couple weeks ago while I was home by myself (which is hardly ever)! It's a blue-tailed skink. I grabbed it up in a bath towel and set it free outside, then I went in and got my camera and took some pictures. I sure hope it doesn't try that again!

Before I go, I wanted to give you an update on Tanya (my cousin's wife). Unfortunately, it is not good news. She is in the hospital again. We found out she has stage 4 cancer, and is on very strong chemo. She also has more blood clots and her kidneys are failing, so she is on dialysis. She had to have some of her toes and part of her foot amputated because of the blood clots. On Wednesday, we had planned our visit around her time for dialysis, but when we got there, they told us her dialysis was late that day, so we didn't get to see her. She was disappointed, and so were we. We haven't seen her since August. Please continue to keep her in your prayers. She is in desperate need of them.

Don't take your loved ones for granted. Give them a hug and tell them you love them. We are not promised tomorrow.

I hope you all have a wonderful Sunday. Thanks for stopping by.

Take care,
~Melanie

Summer This 'n That

Hello, everyone!! I hope you all are having a wonderful summer. Ours is going well...we're just staying busy!

We've been working on getting things ready for the upcoming school year. We'll start back the day after Labor Day. I have some friends whose children are going back the first week of August...not much of a summer break there!

Next week our church will be having VBS. Dave from Animal Alley Ministries is going to be here. We've had him a couple times before, and he does a great job with the kids. He brings all kinds of exotic animals and uses them in Bible lessons. However, when he brings out the tarantula I am GONE! After the lesson, we have volunteers who are going to help with crafts and snacks. I have great memories of VBS when I was growing up, and I hope these kids will too. :)

In other news, Katie started a Facebook page recently, so I figured I had put mine off long enough. I've had a lot of fun catching up with my friends and family that I haven't seen in years! I never really thought about how many people I knew until I started looking around. There's my friends from school, friends from different churches, and since my mom and dad both come from large families, there is no short supply of aunts and uncles and cousins! The whole process has made me feel kind of old, but everybody else is getting old along with me, so that's just the way it is, isn't it??

I hope you're all staying cool. Our temperature right now at 2:15PM is 93°, and the heat index is 112°! I hung out some clothes this morning, and it was horribly hot already. I think I'm going to put laundry off for a couple of days until this heat wave is over. Tomorrow the forecast is for 102° with a heat index of 120°. Needless to say, we are staying inside with the air conditioning!



Here are some pictures of our flowers this year. We've been enjoying them when it doesn't feel like an oven outside.

Two different colors of Rose of Sharon


Lily


Salvia


This is my very special stepping stone
Katie made for me several years ago.

Our tomato plants have done really well this year. We've had a good amount of rain to keep them growing. I'm anxious for them to get ripe! One of my favorite things is a sandwich made with fresh tomatoes and mayonnaise. Mmm Mmm.



Last but not least, is there anyone else out there who understands that these next two items are absolute 'must haves' in the summertime?? Katie and I would be a miserable pair without them!
Mosquitoes just love us!
Fortunately for Lee, they mostly leave him alone.



Hope you're enjoying your summer.
Thanks for stopping by. :)

Take care,
~Melanie

Washing & Waiting

We have been enjoying our first week of summer vacation...
just a little bit of laziness going on around here!


So, what did Katie and I do while we waited for the clothes to dry?
We went for a walk, and took some pictures to share with you.



Ivy from under our cherry tree.



One of our blueberry bushes.



Wild raspberries in the woods out back



Mimosa tree across the road



This is a close-up of it.
Isn't that pretty?



Wild daisies




Katie on the swing in the backyard



Katie and Lilly under the willow tree


We took these pictures earlier this week.
It is 95° here today, so we are inside!
I don't believe the air conditioner
has stopped all day.

Hope you're all having a great week,
and staying cool.

Thanks for stopping by.

Take care,
~Melanie

Just A Fun Day

My husband and I took some of the school kids on a field trip Wednesday. It was raining in the morning, but thankfully it didn't last long. We went to a park and grilled some hotdogs and hamburgers at the beach, then took the kids for a walk on one of the trails. Everything was so pretty and green, and I made sure I took some pictures so you could see what things look like in our part of the world. :)

There was mountain laurel everywhere.
It was beautiful.





We saw lots of pretty ferns too.







The trail ended at this pretty little lake,
complete with lily pads.
That's mountain laurel blooming all around.



This little lizard blended in so well,
we almost missed it!



This was our group.
They always keep us on our toes!!



This is something interesting
we saw while we were eating lunch.
The one on the right is a stuffed animal, and
the one on the left was a guy dressed up in
some kind of big foot suit.
Someone was on the shore taking pictures of them.
I have no idea what it was all about,
but we thought it was funny.
I wanted to get a better picture,
but the wind was so strong
that it kept blowing them back to shore.

I hope you all have had a good week. We only have two weeks of school left, and I am so happy about that! I always enjoy summer break. :)

Have a great weekend.

Take care,

~Melanie