Homemaking Mondays: Flowers in My Home Garden

 

Hello! 
This past week I acquired a couple new things. 

One is a lovely new tea cup and saucer that I just love!

The delightful blue and white and the sweet butterfly.

I've also tried this new Meyer Lemon tea by Stash and it's delicious!

A good wake up tea.

With all the flowers that are around the house 

I was inspired to add more. 

I saw this idea on an ad that kept coming up in my social media feed.

So I talked to my daughter about it. 

She is a wonderful designer so she created this for me.

The flowers in my garden as a mother. 

I went rummaging through my collection of frames 

that I've collected.  

I only had to cut the picture down a tad and it fit.

It's sitting here on my sewing machine but at some point 

I will find it a permanent home. 

I am loving the beautiful burst of the pink violets as well. 

I must say I do also adore the little ruffled petals. 

With homeschooling I've been trying something new

for when the boys read books. 

They read all the time but I wanted to challenge them to 

dig a little deeper and think a little more about what they are reading.

I came across this SOAPSTone method. 

It asks some good simple questions for the 
speaker, occasion, audience, purpose, subject, and tone. 

No book how simple it may seem is just fluff. 

Every book has something that it's teaching or wanting to convey. 

The author of the books values and beliefs also come through in their writing. 

So doing author studies or research is good to understand more about

what you are reading. 

The springtime is becoming more forceful up here 

and winter is starting to back down.

The sun is warmer when it does shine and the temperature is rising more.

The winds are strong and yesterday we actually had rain.  

Of course it was snowing again some this morning....but it's already melting nicely.

There are now little patches of soil under some of the bigger trees.  

There are puddles and mud in the drive and the smell.  

Oh the smell of springtime is starting to come on strong! 

Indoors the seedlings are growing. 

I am itching to start the greenhouse work...but alas

there is still too much snow just yet.  

I re-seeded more squash today as for some reason my others 

don't want to grow? 

With gardening it's my eatable hobby and every year is an experiment.

Sometimes some things grow without effort and others 

well...they need some strong encouragement. 

In it all the Lord is good and there is always something to eat in the end. 

I pray you all have a wonderful week! 

Thanks for dropping by!

Love and Prayers,

Jennifer

Homemaking Mondays: It's All In How You Mix It

 

Hello! 
How do you like your tea? 

I like to mix my own tea mostly.

Some of this and some of that.

I also like my tea nice and strong.

Add some cream and sweetener and it's lovely.

I do enjoy simple herbal tea as well

although lately I've been drawn to adding some 

black tea in with mix. 

Chamomile, Ivan's Tea, Peppermint,Red Raspberry and Black

is my go to mix at the moment. 

Sadly I have just finished up the last of my Ivan's Tea

so I'll be anxiously awaiting the fireweed this summer.

Do you like to mix up your own blends of tea?

With all the new growth celebrating the longer

hours of sunshine are the geraniums.

I did take some cuttings to start some new fresh plants.

In doing so I cut off the flower stems

and they are being enjoyed in little vases.

I love the little bottles that my essential oils 

come in and after they are emptied

they may beautiful little vases for small bits of flowers.

With the longer hours of sunshine 

the melting is continuing to change the scenery.

There are more patches of ground showing and the icicles 

are forming and dropping from the eaves. 

This one big icicle outside our main door lasted 

a long time before dropping away.

It doesn't look that long in the picture but it was 

a few feet long. 

There are lots of ways to look at things.

With spring comes puddles, mud, dirty vehicles,

and random drastic changes in the weather. 

Sometimes I admit it can be a bit frustrating at times.

It is all in how you look at it though. 
Just like I like to add this and that to my tea

I am trying to look at each aspect as a beautiful 

part of the blend. 

 I pray your day is blessed today!

Love and Prayers,

Jennifer

Homemaking Mondays: Snow is a Melting!

Hello! 
Snow is melting! 

There is a lot of snow to go...but it's starting.

The icicles off the eves are lovely and 

there are patches of ground showing here and there.  

It is wonderful to watch the birds and squirrels 

scouring the earth for tasty bits. 

Even our dog seems to find patches of clear earth to lay

down in.  Then of course there is some cleaning at the door to be done.

 

I went out for a short hike with a couple of my children.

The snow is quite soft but on the skidoo trails

it's still quite manageable.  

Even with the heavy cloud cover we could see

the distant mountains on the horizon. 

I also found this cool tree at the edge of the trail.

For some reason all the texture caught my eye.

There was also this cool tree trunk with the colourization on the bottom.

It was also much bigger then it looks in the picture. 

The springs are running stronger

and at one point the trail goes over them. 

It's a well packed trail and will be there for quite a bit longer.

This week some cinnamon buns 

were in order. this time I just used vanilla in the icing

that in the picture has melted into them. 

It has been a lovely week just puttering about the home. 

There are so many little things that come to 

our attention as the increased sunshine 

seems to stir us to action. 

With changing up the top of the sewing machine 

I thought that I'd add these cute little bluebirds from the hutch.

Along with the search and destroy missions on the cobwebs

it's good to dust those out of the way places we like to pretend don't 

exist most of the year.  It's a work in progress.

Thank you for dropping by today! 

Praying you have a beautiful spring day!

Love and Prayers,

Jennifer

Homemaking Mondays: Friends Share Life's Journey

 

Hello! 
This journey of life the Lord God has given each of us.

He has also graciously allowed us friends to 

walk alongside us. 

Now the greatest friend I have known is the Lord Jesus himself.

The real one that I met through His Word.  

I am grateful for the treasure of the others 

that have come into my life.

From my husband to ladies that have let me share my life 

with them and their lives with me.

Those in person and those that I've never met outside of the internet.

I'm a fairly quiet person but treasure those I know.

Little moments shared in the comments of this blog

are also special to me. 

A lady I've never met shared a delicious bread recipe with me. 

Portuguese Bread

Yes, I did try it today and it's delicious! Thank you! 

Also learning from others online that I've never spoken with. 

Through their blogs and things they have written. 

One thing I have enjoyed and has become a kind of friend is this cookbook.

The Prairie Homestead Cookbook. 

Some of us view our cookbooks as friends.

Those recipes that we use often 

or just cookbooks that we read through that inspire us

to care for our family through our kitchens. 

I think friends are like flowers that bring a fresh scent

to our lives and smiles to our faces and hearts. 

Some are in our lives for a short time and some for a lifetime.

All part of the lives that God has given us. 

Thank you all for dropping by

and I pray you have a blessed day!

Love and Prayers,

Jennifer