And what have I been up to?
We celebrated our Thanksgiving dinner last Sunday at my mother's home. Here are my siblings and their families. Because of such busy lives we seldom get together unless it is holidays. But when we do we try and make up for lost time when we are together.

My oldest sister lives out of town, she and her dh stayed over for a few days, we spent some  time together catching up.


I have been trying to finish decorating the inside and helping Mr P with the outside. When Thanksgiving day came we just had a very layback day, as our children live so far away and could not get home, we went for a long drive after lunch, as we passed so many homes with so many cars parked in their yard, we knew that families had once again gathered together to give thanks for their many blessings. Yes , we had a bit of nostalgia for a moment, but our hearts are filled with lots of wonderful memories of past Thanksgivings.....


I am a goal setter and I have a goal to have all decorations up inside and out, to have Christmas cards ready to be mailed, by Dec. 1st. I happened to mention this to Mr. P today, and his reply was "Do you have any idea what todays date is?" says me "yeeees, and I work better under pressure." lol
Enjoy your evening.
Hugs,
 Sue

Would you like a peek?...


My home has been undergoing a new look over the past week, I have gone from having pumpkins, gourds, pilgrims and autumn  leaves all about the house, (after all it has been out since the last of August.) to putting glitter and shine, in as many nooks and crannies that I can find. And Perry Como and Bing Crosby have already been singing up a storm


Christmas will be here and gone before we know it, I like to have all my decorations up, and my pantry stocked with lots  of goodies  that will be turned into all kinds of concoctions for family and friends to enjoy!


I find that if I get this all done by Dec. 1st, that I have all of the month of Dec. to enjoy our family,....time for reading,...watching all of our favorite Christmas movies, thus creating less stress, and the season is so much more enjoyable. I don't get so busy that I forget why we are celebrating Christmas, which is the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ....

after all He is the reason for the season...

This is what I put in the foyer, but was not quit satisfied so I did some changes and will show later.

This is the victorian tree in our bedroom before it is dressed for the holidays, it is one of our favorite trees, I unwrap each ornament and place on the bed, at this point there are still  some in the boxes. I enjoy decorating our home for the holidays.

These ornaments hold special memories in my heart, a lot of them were made by our daughter many years ago as a young bride far away from home, and when I hang them I am filed with many memories of how she presented them to me.and we hung them on the tree together, there are some antique ornaments too, but as long as I have been saving them they are probably all antiques by now! LOL

 I love these victorian dolls ,see, how she is looking at the nativity. Just blesses my heart.

Please don't think I have thrown Thanksgiving aside, it  will be celebrated as I am so thankful for all of my blessings.James 1:17~Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above,and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. 

I love to see the wide eyes of children before being served turkey.

We will have our traditional turkey and dressing, with sweet potato casserole, green beans,turnips all kinds of salads and lets not forget the pumpkin pies, which will be served on these...  and will have hearts full of thankfulness.

Thank you so much for taking the time to stop by, and for leaving me such sweet and endearing comments.
Much love to all,
Sue

Can you guess what we have been up to?  
written by Sue...

It's that time of year when farmers begin to think, and prepare for the next year's growing season. Our strawberry sets arrived this week and we got them in the ground with no problems. We use black plastic with drip irrigation....All 500 plants.

Hopefully by the end of April we will have plenty of luscious berries.....


We had a group of friends from our church here on Wednesday evening, for our Thanksgiving-Christmas  dinner. There was seventeen of us, and we had a great time of fellowship. DH and I have been busy getting ready for this occasion, we love to have our friends over to eat and fellowship. 

 I was elected to carve the turkey, but if you look closely there is a shadow standing beside me just waiting to grab the knife, and finally ended up with it, when I was called to another room by dh. The ladies in our church can really put on a spread.

The dining room waiting for guests to sit down and enjoy time together. Remember I said I combined Thanksgiving and Christmas decorations together. I like to have everything done so to enjoy time with family when they come home!


I took my camera and went out on the farm yesterday for some photos...

The Bradford pear trees were in their full glory, while standing beneath these beautiful trees I was in awe of God's handiwork. and would you believe I found this....

by the pond sitting in a pot on the deck, dh said that the trees had protected it from the cold and frost. Quite a contrast wouldn't you think so?  They are both so beautiful.


Before I leave I must show you a photo of two of my favorite people...

This is my sweetie and a very dear lady at our church, she is very special to us... This photo was taken a few weeks ago, when dh crashed a baby shower that I attended. Aren't they cute, yes they both have their pacifiers. lol My dh is such a good sport about everything.


And now dear friends, may I wish you and your family a most blessed Thanksgiving. This is the season when we are especially thankful for our many blessings, and I have so many that I cannot count them, but please know that you all are among  my most thankful blessings, and what a privilege to know you.
Much love, 
Sue
Psalm 103:1-2 Bless the Lord, oh my soul; and all that is within me, bless His holy name!
Bless the Lord, oh my soul, and forget not all His benefits;

I made the best bean soup this week, I am a soup person myself. I could eat it all year, but I especially enjoy it this time of year. The weather has finally gotten really cool, and I would like to share this soup recipe with you.....


I took a 1 lb. bag of 16 different  beans,(I usually have a mix of beans that I make myself on hand, but haven't made any in a while.) looked for stones, and washed them. I let them soak for about 6 hours, and then I put them in my slow cooker, with 1 qt. water, added  some chopped lean country cured ham and cooked them until they were tender.

To this I added 1 pt. of tomatoes, 1 1/2 cups of chopped onion, 1 diced chili pepper, juice from 1 lemon, 1 chopped garlic clove,salt and pepper. cook for 30 mins more. I like to pre measure all of my ingredients before hand, it makes the recipe easier to make, plus  it keeps me from  scrambling all over the kitchen trying to find something. And it makes cleanup a breeze, that I especially like. lol

this is the best soup with a sandwich.... I think what makes it so good is the kick you get from the red chile pepper.

Hope you enjoyed my bean soup, and if I could I would have invited you over for a taste.
I have a lot of irons in the fire right now, getting ready for the holidays, if I told you what I had been up to you might laugh, so I will save that for later. lol (hint... it has to do with Christmas) Plus I have been doing a few outside project too. I should have named this the "never done farm blog" but someone else has cornered that name. lol
Hugs, 
Sue 

Today was one of those days where you just wanted to curl up with a good book, and a nice warm cup of cocoa, and that is my simple pleasure for today. It was cold and rainy, I do enjoy fall days like this as well as the bright, sunny ones.I didn't curl up though until this evening after dinner, it was a nice simple pleasure that I looked forward to all day. I even put on my Christmas pjs.  lol......

When November comes, I greet it with  much anticipation,fall is my favorite season, but Thanksgiving and Christmas are my favorite holidays. I have been saving holiday books and magazines for years, and at this time I get them out and begin to read and make my plans. So today was a a very good simple pleasure, these books have seen a lot of wear and tear, but I never get tired of reading them.


I like to decorate for the holidays early, and I combine Christmas and Thanksgiving decorations. It is a personal preference, one I learned from my Mother, she always made our home sing when the holiday came.

It is sometimes the simplest things in life that we find so much joy.
Hope your day was filled with many simple pleasures.
HUgs, 
Sue


Proverbs 3:5~ Trust in the Lord with all thine heart;and lean not unto thine own understanding. 
I am linking up with Dayle for Simple Pleasures, please feel free to join and share or go and read more simple pleasures (HERE). or click on the icon.

My day.....
Written by Sue.


 DH and I read a chapter in Proverbs each  day beginning on the first day of the month. I have decided to go a little further in my personal devotion and find a verse in the chapter that really speaks to my heart.


 I wrote it on the card with my to do list and carried it with me as I did my work all the while memorizing it. My verse for today is this....Proverbs 1:33~But whoever listens to me will dwell safely, and will be secure, without fear of evil. I really like this verse because my heart's desire is to listen to the voice of God, and to do what His Word says....


After devotions I started my laundry, made the bed,cleaned the bathrooms, watered houseplants, and straighten the house. I stepped outside on the porch for just a moment to bask in the sunshine as it was so beautiful today, and when I reached for the door knob to go back in I noticed a job that I have been wanting to get done  for months, I said' today is the day!"

Ugly huh? I really didn't think I would be able to do anything with it, but remembered that my dad used Brasso on his military pins when they needed cleaning, and many times helped him shine his pins and buttons. I  found some in the cabinet that was really old, but decided to try anyway. After applying and  a lot of rubbing and more rubbing this is the result....

Not bad huh?  I am so pleased with the result. It took a lot of trips out on the porch to get this.  I even had time to clean the screened porch today. I might try some newer cleaner, as Miss perfect wants it perfect. lol


When we started finishing the porch I suspended my walking as I was working very long days, and since it is now finished I have no excuse to not exercise.


 So last Friday I started again, and today I tried to talk myself out of walking, because I was a little tired, but the phone rang and guess who was calling, My coach aka dh,reminding that if I was going to walk I might want to before it got to cool. So I put my tennis shoes on and here I went. Got 2 miles done. Yea! 

So how was your day? Hope you had a great one!
Hugs,
 Sue