The Slow Cooker - Slow as Christmas!

"The Slow Cooker", that's what I'm calling our kitchen re-do!   It has been a S-L-O-W process!

It actually surprises me to think how long its been if you count when I almost lost my mind or something and took the doors off the top cabinets in October of 2010! WOWZER! You can read about that here.

Then, it's been almost a year ago (April 2011) when we started updating appliances. One.at.a.time. The fridge was first. I was so happy with it that I had to make myself quit standing in front of it and hugging it!

Then, a couple months later, maybe three, a "wave" of change came in the form of a new micro wave oven. The old one was pretty pathetic as you can see. Well, it doesn't look that bad I guess here, but when it was taken all the way out it looked BAD. My husband isn't one to get rid of things quickly, but that went straight into the trash!  Sorry I didn't get a picture of that.  I have it embedded in my brain, though!  Here's the "after" picture!

Then right before Christmas, I kinda started dropping some hints about the stove needing to be updated too.  I did it  in a sweet, suthin kinda way of course, that went something like this, "ya know what, it sho would look good if all the appliances wuh stainless steel, doncha think?", to my honey!
Now, don't tell me ya'll have never done that! Nothing works like that sweet suthin whine drawl, y'all! (I hear my daughters cracking up when they read this)!
That wasn't nagging was it? I don't think so, cause not long after we wuz in Lowes and my sweetie starts looking and asking questions about the stainless steel gas ranges! I started feeling like a kid at Christmas! The next thing I knew........this was setting in here!


Yep, that's a great big cheesy smile you see on my face!

Ok, we have made it from April to December! We are doing GREAT! I'm excited! Excited because shortly after the stove has been put in my sweetie said, "I know what I'm gonna get you for Christmas"! I started trying to remind him that I already had my Christmas present - the stove. "But I have to have you something else for Christmas", he says!  So, in my sweet little suthin voice, I said, "OK, Shua, my Honey Blossom!"  Then he says,  "I'm going to fix the island"! I didn't really know what to think, to be honest. This island has really had it's own set of problems recently. I won't bore you with the details.

Anyoleway, I was a little shocked when I heard this announcement because it was like the week before Christmas,.... ahhh,...... actually the Friday before Christmas when he got serious about this. Let me insert here that this is my husband's idea this time, ok?
So, he decided to take some walnut wood that came from trees cut down on our property and had been "curing" for y.e.a.r.s now, and have it "plained" and use it for the top for the island.
My husband is wonderful! One of our son-in-laws says that he could make something out of toothpicks! He can, but it usually doesn't happen overnight! That could be due to a couple of things: one, he is a perfectionist, or two, he is a very BUSY man. So, I'm OK, really I am! This was his idea, remember?!

Fast forward to January 18, 2011!   Island?   What island?   Where! Oh, that island!!! It's still at the wood working shop!
Something went wrong ( fan me, cause I think I'm gonna faint!)
 It was being worked on in a building that was not heated, and the wood SPLIT!
I know, isn't that terrible!
 I'm OK, though!
 I did get to see some pictures of it. I'll share with you, a couple of blurry ones,  if you're interested !




Where they are pointing to is the split.





Looks like a team of surgeons around it, doesn't it?  SERIOUS!

 Sooooo, hopefully, this week we will be able to go pick it up and then the island will look something like this island top.  (I know.....I'm dreaming)!

Then all we will have left to do is:    New Counter Tops, New Sink, Subway Tile above counters (have had that picked out for some time now), and decide what we will do with the cabinets....leave the doors off? get new ones doors?  get new cabinets ? (probably not!) do cafe' shelves?  There' still a lot before it's finished.
It might be done in time for Christmas! But I'm Ok with that!

Seriously, I am very thankful for what the Lord has given me. I have so much to be thankful for! I'm thankful for the way the Lord uses my husband. He is such a faithful minister and so wants to be used in the Lords work; and that he is!  He not only pastors a growing church, listens to my southern whining, drawling, but he also travels nationally as well as internationally, preaching, teaching and singing in conferences and meetings. He has so many opportunities and open doors to be used and I certainly don't ever want to hinder that. He also is known for his patience, and sometimes, I'll admit I need him to teach some of that to me!  When I think about it, I guess he has!  I'm patiently waiting here!
Gail

Touching The Hem



Is Life Becoming Unraveled? Is it too perplexed? Do you have issues that you can't deal with; questions that you don't know the answer to. The solution is within reach! Look at this wonderful passage of Scripture. It is one of my favorites!

Matthew 9:20 -26 And, behold, a woman, which was diseased with an issue of blood twelve years, came behind him, and touched the hem of his garment: 21 For she said within herself, If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole. 22 But Jesus turned him about, and when he saw her, he said, Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole. And the woman was made whole from that hour.

What a wonderful account of faith and dedication here in this passage. This could be so applicable to we as women today. Think about it. It appears that this woman is hurrying along with a crowd of people who were also trying to see this One called Jesus. It spoke of the multitudes and of a whole city coming out to see Him just a few verses earlier.
Aren't so many seemingly caught up in the "rat race" of life; lost among the crowds; and constantly going to and fro looking for peace.
So many are blindly looking, searching, grasping for something that they can hold onto to have a sense of security, happiness, and well being.
We can learn so much from this humble woman. She was looking at the perfect Source. She knew she needed help and she knew it was not within herself to help herself. She knew she could not "pull herself up by her boot straps". Furthermore she knew no one else around her could help her except Jesus. She believed He had the power to heal her.
She had faith that if she could but just touch the hem of His garment, she would be healed. This sounds very close to the " grain of mustard seed ". Illustration Jesus used, doesn't it?
She, by faith, reached out and simply touched the hem of His garment.
The wonderful thing is, Jesus knew that she was desperate. He knew she was desiring to be healed by Him. He knew her dedication to following Him. He turned in the crowd of people and spoke directly to her. I love that part about this story! He summed it up by saying to her "thy faith hath made thee whole".
She reached out and touched Him!
Have you reached out to touch Him today? Do you have some difficulty, some problem, some burden? Maybe it just seems that "life" is getting out of control or just passing you by and you feel like you are having to "keep up"? You can still reach out to Him, and by faith believe He can help, and He will! He cares!
Oh how we need to touch or get in touch with Him every day! I know I do!

Word for the Year

My Word of the Year - SEE what it is -

I've been hearing a lot about the "word" of the year. The idea is that you sum up all of the goals, ambitions, dreams, plans, intentions, etc that you are thinking about for the year 2012 in one word and you focus on this one word throughout the year.

For several years now, I have done something similar in my Bible reading. As I try to read the Bible through, I try to get a phrase, a word or an idea and look for it in the Bible as I read through it.

Also for the past few years, our church has had a theme for the year. This has made it easy for me to just take whatever the theme of the church is for the year to be what I look for as I read. For instance, last year our theme was "We would see Jesus". So as I read the Bible through, I looked for, you guessed it, JESUS! I didn't have to look far to see Him in His very own Word! By the way, it was a special blessing since it was the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible!

This year our theme is "Holding Forth the Word of Life", taken from Phil. 2:16. I want to be counted with those who are "holding forth the Word of life". There are so many directions you could take this theme. I love it!

For my own personal life, I like to think about the Word, being a light, and being able to hold forth the light in this dark and sinful world.

There is so much that can be said about light. Of course the main thing that it does is to brighten or illuminate. I pray that as I try do my part in "holding forth the word of life", that through me, the Lord will illuminate the darkness for those in sin and darkness.

Before we can illumine anyone else's path, we must have our own path illuminated; before we can teach others the truths in Gods's Word, we must have the Holy Spirit to illumine our hearts with the truth of Gods Word.

It is my prayer that He will do this for me. Do what for me? Illumine me! So do you have any idea what my word of the year is? ILLUMINE! That's it! ILLUMINE!


Here it is in an old song! It is my prayer!

1.    Open my eyes, that I may see
   glimpses of truth thou hast for me;
   place in my hands the wonderful key
   that shall unclasp and set me free.
   Silently now I wait for thee,
   ready, my God, thy will to see.
   Open my eyes, illumine me, Spirit divine!

2.    Open my ears, that I may hear
   voices of truth thou sendest clear;
   and while the wavenotes fall on my ear,
   everything false will disappear.
   Silently now I wait for thee,
   ready, my God, thy will to see.
   Open my ears, illumine me, Spirit divine!

3.    Open my mouth, and let me bear
   gladly the warm truth everywhere;
   open my heart and let me prepare
   love with thy children thus to share.
   Silently now I wait for thee,
   ready, my God, thy will to see.
   Open my heart, illumine me, Spirit divine!

Do you have a "word" for the year? I would love to hear it!

A Hot Hit!

When I heard the words "Hot Chocolate Bar", this Christmas season, I knew it was something that sounded so wonderful and sounded like something I wanted to try.

We were having the choir from our church and their families over after Sunday night service for a donut fellowship.  I thought this would be a great time to try out a Hot Chocolate Bar as well.  I figured everyone needed a sugar rush ever once in a while! 

So, because I had never actually seen a hot chocolate bar, I had to look it up online.  It was rather late on Saturday before I started looking, and I was a little intimidated at first at the beautiful Hot Chocolate Bars I saw.  I kept looking and got some ideas that I knew was "do-able", for me, anyway!   So this is what I came up with for the Hot Chocolate Bar for the choir, and then the second set of pictures shows how I changed it up a bit the next day and made it "grand kid friendly"!  (mainly replacing glass with plastic~!)



To make the peppermint stirrers, my daughter, Sarah, and I stuck marsh mellows on the end of the peppermint cane and then dipped them in melted white chocolate.





The hot chocolate mix is from a recipe I also found on line, but ended up having to add a store bought mix to it to make it "rich" enough.  So you might as well go ahead and buy a huge thing of mix and save yourself some trouble.  Nesquik is just as good, especially with whole milk. 

Speaking of milk, you may be wondering how I served the milk for the hot cocoa.  I used 2  of those large thermal pumps.  I borrowed them from our church kitchen.  I'm not sure what they are called.  You can see a picture of them at the very end of this post.  They worked great!  I just kept interchanging an empty one for a full one as I heated the milk on the stove top.  For the grand kids, I just used hot water.  They loved it just the same!





Now for the Grand Kid Hot Chocolate Bar!  Just a simple switch from glass containers to plastic ones, and adding their favorite thing in the world, I think, WHIP CREAM!  They love for me to just squirt a big old glob of it in their mouth!  Oh the joys of being a grandmother!  This hot chocolate bar was a huge success with the grandchildren!



Yummy stirring spoons made my Aunt Sarah!

 

Abby helping me put it together as we waited for Aunt Leah and Jackob to arrive from Mississippi on Monday night of the week before Christmas.  She was so excited!

Oh yes! It was a hot hit! 



Christmas at "My Old Kentucky Home"

Welcome to Christmas tour 2011!  This is not exactly a candle light tour of "My Old Kentucky Home" at Christmas.  As a matter of fact, I was really thankful for a beautiful, sunny day a few days ago that allowed me to get these picutures. 

What I thought I would do is start at the front door and work my way through.  So, there may not be a lot of explaining, maybe just captions under the pictures telling what room it is.  I know you ladies are busy touring all the other houses out there in blogland.  Occasionally I might say something about an idea that is orgingal with me.  Most of the ideas are from someone's blog or straight from Pintrest.  I don't mind that.  If it's something I like, and I know they don't mind me being a copy cat, then I use it.  I would hope that others would find a little bit of inspiation when they visit me. 

So come on in ya'll!




Front Door...ugly cord and all!  Can you guess what is on the back of the two chairs?  Hint:  most people would wear it, not cut it up and use it as a decoration!  It acutally was an out of style skirt; out of style as far as the design, but not the fabric.  Red and black and white plaid never goes out for Christmas.  Right?  I was contemplating getting rid of it, then had a light bulb moment!

  


Nativity scene, designed by daughter, Hannah who was helping me clean and get ready for a Christmas get together.  This is on the piano which sets in the foyer (picture above this one).

 






Thw stairs to the left of the piano.  I ususally decorate with greenery and lights, but this year since I am going with a more simple approach, I used these "swags".  They are made from greenery and berries from the yard.  Can't get much cheaper than that!

Back to the foyer and to the right of the piano, let's go into the Living/Dining Room:




Music notes ornaments from the girls' piano teacher many Christmases ago.  Still love them.  Hoping to make a bunch of these.  I've been seeing them a lot lately on different blogs.

I love to decorate with sticks out of the yard!  Couldn't get much cheaper than that!

This pictures the other direction looking at Dining Area into the Kitchen.

 Holly cut from a holly tree at the church.  Cheap, again!

A little Christmas touch in the hutch.

Decorations on the buffet.  These may change.  I love how some have set up a hot chocolate center.  I would like to do this for a Ladies Sunday School Class get together here on Sunday.  So, if I do, I'll try to do a post about it.  For now, it looks like the above picture.

From the dining room to the kitchen......

and from the Kitchen looking back into the Dining/Living Room

 

The following are pictures of the Kitchen taken from different angles:

This is actually an early Christmas present for which I am very thankful.  We have gradually been updating our appliances  (see some of this here) from when we first built the house 18 years ago.  We just updated the stove with this one.  I sorta like it!

Some Christmas Kitchen Close-ups




A Christmas gift from last year that I love!

 


Saw this idea of the candy canes hooked over the edge of a container, on a blog, but I did it before I saw it on the blog....promise! 

Little trees in buckets on  each side of the sink....you know I did not come with this on my own!

A quick "cover-up" for and unfinished update on the island.

Now, for the last room, we will go from the kitchen to the Family Room.



  The fireplace actually separates the kitchen from the Family Room.  So here is one side (before you go, though, look closely at the doilie (real close!, because it's white like the wall), inside the picture frame over the mantle.  This is a doilie that my mom made me several years ago.  I love to use it at Christmas because I think it looks like a snow flake.  Guess I'm for sure the only one with this idea!)

and here's the other side when you're standing in the Family Room.

Guess you thought we didn't have a tree!  We do, and another piano!  We love music around here!  This piano does not work...only for looks!

The tree and the shutters that I have had for a long time and used in several different places, but think the best use for them is to place Christmas cards on them. 

Also, if you look closely you can see where I used scarves for garland on the tree.  Since scarves are so popular right now, I thougt this was kinda cute.  It definitely is an original.  I'm sure no one else would even think of doing this!

The scarves!

Love using cranberries to decorate and to garnish with!  You can see this here.  Beautifull with some snow!

The special gift from last year (click here to see.)  Can't wait to exchange with the girls this year.  Rebecca will get mine and I will get Hannah's, I think.

The red sled that I found in October at place in West Virginia.  I have been wishing for one for a while.  I had to give it a fresh coat of red paint and think it turned out OK.  It sets at the back door.


Well, there you have it, the 2011 Christmas tour of "My Old Kentucky Home"!  I sure have enjoyed having you.  Wish you all come for a real visit! 
Ya'll come back anytime to visit!