The Great Pumpkin

If you ever call me on my cell phone and I don't answer, send the rescue crews to my house. The pumpkins will have gotten us! These things are monstrous and are growing at a truly alarming rate. This one reminds me a little bit of a dragon. Those long white things on the right are going to turn in to roots. These babies put roots down at each leaf and just keep moving along. Marvelous Mark has a way with plants and he has grown some state-fair-quality pumpkins in the past. These are Dill's Atlantic Giant Pumpkins. They are more aggressive than kudzu. Now you understand my fear. He planted this one within 20 feet of the front porch. I am worried! There is one itty-bitty pumpkin on it at this point; I'll post pictures as it grows.

Marvelous!

Marvelous Mark strikes again! This wonderful man really can fix anything. My "new" sewing machine (it's only 21 years old) broke several weeks ago as I was finishing up a new dress. I asked Mark if he could cannibalize some parts from my Grandma's old cabinet machine that I had inherited several years ago and never used. This poor machine has been sitting unused for at least 15 years and quite possibly longer than that. It has been moved from Georgia to Vermont to North Carolina to South Carolina (lived at least 2 different places there) with Grandma (and it may have been in Switzerland before that, I'm not sure when Grandma got it); to Georgia where it was stored in a damp, leaky barn, then in a hot and dusty garage; off to Alabama where it was stored in an exterior storage room and then to our basement in our new home. Poor machine! We went down to the basement to look at it and on a whim, I plugged it in and to my great delight and surprise it worked!! Mark looked it over and strongly suggested that I go to using it more since the parts are all metal (the newer model has plastic gears) and should last for many more years. After we got some parts from Mom, I was able to finish my dress. Then it broke. Mark looked it over, cleaned it, oiled it and...it still did not work. We were disappointed because repairing a machine can get pretty pricey. Two days later, Mark went in and the machine works. It's either Divine intervention or the oil finally soaked in, but I'm giving thanks and praise to God either way! So this week I will enjoy the steady rain we are hoping to get while I "Sew! Sew like the wind!" and finish up
1. A gift for a sister
2. A skirt
3. A dress
4. A couple more slips (I do NOT like nylon slips in the summer!)
5. Some bishop gowns to then be pleated and smocked.
Think that's enough to keep me busy?!

Night Time Homestead TV

I can not believe what just happened; Marvelous Mark, Dan and myself just got a glimpse of the space station passing over our home! What a fun and exciting edition of Homestead TV tonight. I'm a little surprised at myself being so excited about it, but it was really neat to see it racing so brightly across the sky. Here is a link to night-time viewing that you might find interesting. They have a map that lets you find the coordinates to your home and shows you on a star map adjusted to your home where to look for different things. Great fun! Another resource (if you are interested in night-time sky viewing) is a book by H. A. Rey. Yup, the man who wrote Curious George also did a terrific astronomy book titled, "The Stars: A New Way To See Them".
Anyway, that is our excitement for a Monday evening.

Mark and I went to the library today to pick up some books we had on hold. As a side note, isn't putting things on hold at the library the neatest thing EVER?! We can browse the catalog and find a book. A great deal of the time it happens to be at one of over a score of other libraries in our library system. So we just say to the library computer, "Excuse me, but would you please get that book for me and send it to the library of my choice?" And the computer says, "Why certainly! This book happens to be in Avondale (or Bessemer or Irondale or any one of a number of other places that we don't plan to visit in the near future). Shall I send it to Hoover for you, since that is the library you visit most often, or is there another location that would be more convenient to you?" Once those pleasantries are taken care of, the computer magically makes the book go to the library of our choice and then lets us know when it arrives! Not only that, it is so sweet and patient it gives us 4 days to pick up the book (unless we ask it for a little longer, please) and THEN lets us keep the it for 28 days and THEN asks us on day 24 if we are coming back to town or if we would like to renew it for another 2 weeks. Wow. Are we spoiled, or what?! I hope you have a nice library like we do!

Anyway, on to the topic I really meant to write about tonight. We found a book (it was on hold for us) titled, "Made From Scratch" by Jenna Woginrich. It's a nice book; very engaging and readable. It is the story of the author's foray into country living. She had a friend who helped her get started in this adventure and would often invite her over to her home to visit. Her friend had something she called Farm TV where they would sit on the porch and just watch all that would happen with the different animals. Sometimes her friend would get up to go do something in the house and say, "Summer re-runs; I caught this show the first time".
Mark and I have been enjoying our own version of homestead TV. Our porch has two new adirondack rocking chairs, thanks to our recent anniversary. We enjoy sitting on them in the cool of the evening and telling the hummingbirds good-night and welcoming the cicadas. Tonight we had a guest appearance. He passed by briefly last night (I thought I heard the announcer saying, "Tomorrow, on Homestead TV, a special guest appearance by...."). I managed to catch a picture even though it was starting to get late. I did find that he does not like the green flash that appears just before the camera flash goes off!


I suppose I ought to ask you to send in suggestions for a name. He (she?) does have one friend we have seen and possibly others (two is enough for me for right now!). So send a suggestion if you have one and if you are blessed to have a porch and a chair, let me know how your Homestead TV is going.

What's an Auntie to do?

What am I supposed to do? I went to the zoo and the babies were so cute, the big kids were so cute, the animals and the flowers made for some amazing shots....one hundred and twenty-two of them, to be exact! Even after culling the ones that were blurry or just not good, I still have over one hundred pictures. How in the world am I supposed to show one hundred pictures to you? Because of course, they all deserve to be seen. After all, these are the two cutest pre-schoolers around! I'll pick my top faves of each subject, but I wish you were here to look at the album on my computer with me.

Moses the Tractor Man


Makenna, aka, "Goldilocks". The last trip most of my pictures were of her little sister Miriam and the time before that most of the pics were of Moses, so this time was Makenna's turn and boy, do I ever have a bunch of cute ones of her!



The Aunts getting a little goofy after a long day in the sun. Or else Anne is tired of Auntie 'Ginia snapping her picture!


This time we saw the butterfly house, an exhibit that we usually bypass on our way to ride the train.


I'm sure that there have been times in my life when I have seen lily-pads in blossom, but I sure don't remember them. I don't know which I like better, the color of the flower or the pretty shadows they cast.


So those are my favorites. Today. Who knows what I will think tomorrow?! Next time you are in the vicinity of the Birmingham Zoo, I highly recommend that you stop and take a few moments to enjoy it.

Zoo Day!

I'm always ready for a trip to the zoo, especially when it includes time with Moses and Makenna. When my sister Liz called last night with the suggestion that we meet there today I was thrilled! Moses and Makenna's parents and baby sister are out of town this week, which means that Nana Liz is spending time with them before she has to leave them for a long while to go overseas. I can hardly wait to help Moses and Makenna show Nana all about the Birmingham Zoo. Pictures tonight or tomorrow!

First, a report. The Pell City Farmer's Market is rather small. If you are looking for big and showy and artsy-craftsy, you probably want to skip it and just head to Pepper Place in downtown Birmingham on Saturday mornings (and you need to get there before 8:30 because it gets really crazy by 9:00). In Pell City there is a local honey vendor, which is nice. I have tried to get local honey for a while to help my guys' allergy problems. Unfortunately, it has to be very local to help allergy problems and too often what is advertised as local means "within 350 miles". The county extension agent also has a booth at Pell City with lots of printed material available. I was amused; it was a little windy today so they had ziplock bags with dried beans as paper weights. It seemed like just the thing a county agent ought to do.
I had intended to take some pictures to show you. Unfortunately my camera died this morning. No big problem, it just needs new batteries, but I did not manage to get those before going to the market. Oh well, maybe next time!
Today I may well put the happy hat on and do the dance of joy. The stove-man cometh this morning; Banana Bread, here I come!

Last night I almost put on my happy hat and did the dance of joy. After several weeks of stove-only cooking because the oven was broken, the new oven arrived! Hurrah for Melvin, the remarkable realtor, who managed to get us a home warranty at the last minute on closing day! Without that I would be camp cooking for many more weeks. Anyway, the lovely new gas stove was delivered by Patrick and Michael last evening (I told them they are now two of my favorite people). They are the reason I did not put on the happy hat and do the dance of joy; Mark was afraid that this would make them jump back in their truck and peel out of the driveway as fast as they could go (I don't know why; Mark's reaction to the hat and the dance is not that bad). So today the installer will come and hook it up (I hope) and hopefully I can treat the guys to meatloaf for supper tonight and banana bread tomorrow.
We found out Sunday that Pell City has Farmer's Market on Wednesday afternoons, so we are going to head that way this afternoon (unless the stove person calls) and check it out.

Mark and I are small-church people. We have really enjoyed the times we have been part of a small community church. Once upon a time, Mark's criteria was that we lived close enough to the church that we could walk to it. Life is different in the big-city! The church where we have found ourselves at this time is anything but small, being in excess of 4,000 members! We are confident, however, that this is where God wants us at this time. We realized at one point that when we get to heaven we are going to be in a congregation much larger than this. Managing a church this size, even when you have a large sanctuary, is a challenge for the church leadership. Our church has had to go to multiple services (like many other churches). Mark and I choose to attend the evening service because it allows our son (who is a member of another church) to attend with us. The evening service is smaller, too, and the pastor feels a little less constrained to finish on time. Understand that smaller means just a few hundred folks, but when you are in a very large sanctuary, that feels like a lot less. That makes Sunday mornings a little interesting for us. We are not used to being at home on Sunday mornings. Sometimes we go visit other churches in our area, sometimes we listen to sermons on the internet, sometimes we just sit around. Sometimes when Mark starts talking about how it feels funny to not be at church on Sunday morning I start singing "Tradition!" from Fiddler On the Roof. It is important to not get so bound by tradition that we are doing something just because we think we are "supposed to". At the same time, my heart is not perfect and 100% in tune with the Spirit 100% of the time. There are times when I do things (like attend church and/or Bible study) for all the wrong reasons and God is still able to work in me and change my motivation so that He is honored by my presence.
But it still feels peculiar to attend church on Sunday night and not Sunday morning!

Summer time in a new house with a garden that was planted later in the year than normal has been a little crazier than I anticipated.
It's been a little busy with canning peach preserves and keeping my guys in line (that's a full-time endeavor right there). But I have made time to learn an interesting new skill. I have woven a rag rug on a frame loom. I used to try braided rag rugs but there was so much sewing involved I never finished one. Thinking back to the little pot holders I used to make as a child, I thought that the woven rugs would not require any sewing. I was wrong. However the amount of sewing is not that bad and since I was going for a rustic look anyway I did not care about whether or not my stitches were picture perfect. It was an interesting project and I think I will continue to try these. I learned what I should have done differently and what I liked about doing it. The best part is that I finished it in time for a smocking guild meeting at my home Wednesday morning and since I had planned to use it as a bathmat, I placed it on the floor of the guest bathroom (also known as Dan's bathroom). Yesterday evening Dan asked me why it was there. I told him that it had been intended as a bathmat all along and I put the first one in his bathroom to show off. His response? "Can it stay there? I like it; it's just the right size and it feels good on my feet". My response? You wonderful son! A compliment like that from a 20 year old son guarantees a life-time supply!!

I'm still here; I'm still here!
After the last post I had some issues with the blog host and was not able to post for several days. The house has kept me busy last week getting ready for company. YAY!!!! My parents came to town and spent Thursday through Saturday with us at our house. It was super to get to spend this time with them. They stopped off in Augusta on the way over and brought us some things from my sister. This is the rocking chair that sat in the bedroom I shared with my sister Nancy for a number of years. When I remember bedtime back in those days, I remember sitting in Mama's lap in this chair while she read me a Bible story, taught me the catechism and taught me to pray. Needs a litttle TLC but I am delighted to have this in my home now. Thanks, Liz!

Just for the record, no, Mama did NOT ride like this all the way from Augusta. It started raining around Atlanta, so Daddy let her get in the truck. JUST KIDDING! Yes, she is knitting. You should see the cute baby clothes she is working on right now.

Nashville!

Saturday was spent with Nancy, Carol, Debby and Melanie at the Nashville Flea Market. Wow! And let me say it one more time just for emphasis: WOW!
The Nashville Flea Market is huge. They meet once a month and use the State Fairgrounds. Nancy and Melanie have been before and said that they were using more of the buildings than they had seen in the past. I was so overwhelmed that I did not take any pictures of the flea market itself but the web site is here (and their pictures are probably better than mine). They had so much; the ubiquitous socks, the dollar store excess, the antiques, plants, Mennonite jams and jellies and pies, tools, furniture, kitchen paraphenalia, linens, books, CDs, DVDs, etc., etc., etc. They did not have any live animals for sale but again, WOW! We had a blast and enjoyed each other's company completely.

In other news, Mark has finished with the pressure washer and the house looks super. Hopefully I can get some "after" pictures to post here later this week when the sun comes out. He's also been busy with his garden (of course) and other home projects. He got out this afternoon and dug some wild pink roses out of a ditch and will get those planted this evening.

I took the Wee Care gowns with me to smock in the car on Saturday and finished them up. I'm close to done with the bonnet I have, so I'll get those pictures up later this week too. Let's see, other UFOs, I'm half-way through the calligraphy project, the photography stuff is almost finished and I'm almost ready for rugging. But Mark got some peaches at the outdoor market on Saturday and strawberries went on sale even more at WalMart today, so the projects will have to wait until jam gets finished this evening.

Pictures coming....

Today is UFO day again. As soon as I finish vacuuming (shoot, I may just leave that until tomorrow!) I'm going to get cracking on a few UFOs that are cluttering up that un-named room. Smocking, designing the front garden area, calligraphy, rugging (not really a word, but something I need to do anyway...I'll share later) all need to get finished up. Yes, I'll try to remember to post pictures this time....oh yeah, some photography that needs to be taken care of too.

Late last night I remembered that I promised to get the recipe for homemade coffee creamer up. So here it is. If you are not making your own sweetened condensed milk you can skip the first part but I am a big believer in that recipe. When you go to the store to buy powdered milk and are trying to be careful of the grocery budget that initial cost can seem a bit much. It's worth it!

Put one cup of powdered milk in a small saucepan. Add 2/3 cups of water, stir and bring to a boil, stirring all the while. Remove from heat and add 3/4 to 1 cup of sugar (depending on how sweet you want the creamer; I prefer the 1 cup!). Add to this 3/4 cup of milk. Notice that you are not adding any butter to the sweetened condensed milk that you are making. I just don't find those beads of oil floating in my coffee to be very appetizing. Now add 2 Tablespoons of cocoa and 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of mint extract to make Peppermint Patty flavor. Or you may add just cocoa (1 Tablespoon), 1 Tablespoon of vanilla, or any other flavoring you prefer. Another option I've heard is to crush up your favorite candy (malted milk balls, peppermints or even a Kit Kat bar) and adding that but I have never tried it. I am told that you might want to use a food processor for this and get it as powdery as you can before adding it.

Marvelous Mark will be back soon with a pressure washer, so I've got to go get some before pictures so you will be able to enjoy the big difference with me!

Enjoy your coffee!

A few quick thoughts....

We are home after a wonderful weekend of traveling and visiting with family and dear friends. We went to Sardinia, South Carolina by way of Augusta, Georgia. Dan piped Sunday morning and did a great job playing Abide With Me and Simple Gifts (WOW!) and then piped the congregation over to the Fellowship Hall/Office Building for the dedication of a new memorial window in their library.

After spending yesterday not doing much at all, today will be a busy day. I can't keep putting it off; I've GOT to mop the kitchen floor. Sigh. I do need to let you know that if you are making sweetened condensed milk for creamer it would probably be best to NOT put the butter in it! I'll refine and share the creamer recipe tomorrow.

Now here is the overdue memory verse.

Revelation 5:13 (NIV)
Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, singing;
"To Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honour and glory and power, for ever and ever!"

Did you know that there are very few places in the Bible that use an exclamation mark at the end of a sentence?

Please pray for Layla Grace. She is an 18 month old baby in Texas who was recently diagnosed with an aggressive stage IV inoperable neuroblastoma. Layla begins chemotherapy on Friday. Please pray for her physically as she undergoes this very strong treatment, for her parents as they minister to her through this and for her two big sisters. Her Mom has asked that we pray that the sisters stay healthy so that they can be around her when she is home over the next 15 weeks. Everyone who is asked to pray over this baby will be led to pray for something specific that other people might not think about. Pray as the Spirit leads you and rejoice that all these prayers will piece together to cover the needs of this family!

Sweetened Condensed Milk?

Long day, great Bible study, late night, long trip tomorrow. Soooo...quick post!
Today I ran out of coffee creamer. NOT GOOD! I am not a pleasant person without my coffee. It's almost as bad as running out of estrogen. But I didn't want to spend another $3 on coffee creamer. So I went on-line and Googled "liquid coffee creamer recipe". You would be amazed at how many sites there are with these recipes. Sadly, all the recipes are either the powdered stuff (I've made that before and was decidedly unimpressed with the results), or require sweetened condensed milk. I don't keep sweetened condensed milk on hand in my pantry. I do, however, keep powdered milk (with the price of milk these days I use the powdered stuff for cooking and the liquid stuff for drinking). Did you know you can make sweetened condensed milk out of powdered milk?! It's quick and easy and it tastes good. I do recommend that if you try this, you use a heavy pan to mix and boil it in. My little aluminum pan is just not quite heavy enough, especially since I have a gas stove now. Here's the recipe, courtesy of Carnation Instant Milk.

1 cup powdered milk
2/3 cup cool water
2/3 cup sugar (I said it was sweetened, remember?)
3 Tablespoons butter

Dissolve the powder in water in a 1 quart pan. Bring to a boil and stir til smooth. Remove from heat. Stir in sugar and butter. Allow to cool. Equals one 14 ounce can of sweetened condensed milk.

You can store it in a jar in the refrigerator but I usually just make it up when I need it and use it right away. By the way, if you are also out of half and half and/or heavy whipping cream, you can also make that by adding butter to a cup of milk (powdered or not). For half and half, add 1 1/2 Tablespoons of butter to 7/8 cup of milk. For heavy cream, add 1/3 cup of butter to 3/4 cup of milk. Amazing, isn't it?

I'll let you know how the home made coffee creamer turns out when we get back from our travels. In the meantime, have a great weekend and pray us on our trip.

Oh dear, Thrifty Mama just posted that Hancock's Fabrics will be having a HUGE pattern sale the rest of the month. I guess I just added some more projects to that project list!

Here is what I have been doing the past week.
Making Strawberry freezer jam


That's 20 pints plus one more in the refrigerator, thank you very much!

Organizing my kitchen a little better


"Helping" the Marvelous Mark clean out the gutters



And wash some more of the front porch (I wish you could see the door; it's amazing what Marvelous Mark can do with turpentine and elbow grease!)

Cheering on while you-know-who (initials MM) screens in the back deck (Yay, Marvelous!)


Going to tea at Miss Rosemarie's with my sister-in-law (it was chocolate soup week; an item NOT to be missed!)

And finally.....(drum roll and shrieks, please).....


KILLING SCORPIONS!!!


I promise this is not a joke or a photo-shopped trick; this is the second one of these I have found in the new home. This one was in the laundry. YUCK!! My sister-in-law who lives here assures me that these are not the nasty, poisonous kind you would find in Arizona, but I would just as soon not have any kind of scorpion in my new house. My skin is crawling just looking at the picture and remembering. And the cats are much too lazy to do anything about them. Dumb cats.

This weekend we are going to be on the road. Sardinia Presbyterian Church in Sardinia, SC is having their homecoming and we are going home for it. Dan will be piping (the blowing kind, not the sewing kind) and Mark and I will be enjoying some great company and a wonderful dinner. I'll be sure to take my camera!

Oh dear, I've been out of the loop for a few days. Tomorrow (or even later tonight) I'll post some pictures of what all has been going on at the Akin home lately but for now I want to share a few thoughts.

Sometimes in our life, God shows us that even though we think we know what is going to happen to us next year, next month, next week, tomorrow, or even later today, we really don't. Sometimes when we think we have it all figured out how we are going to take care of ourselves, God reminds us that all our provision comes from HIM and HIM alone. Sometimes when we find ourselves in that place of being reminded, we want to think that coming out of that place depends on what we do or don't do to acquire God's blessing. It is easy to think to yourself, "If I just give more to the church, God will bless me". Or, "If I just witness to more people, God will bless me". Or some other "If I just....". On Sunday The Marvelous Mark and I visited another church close to home and I don't think we will be going back to that one. The sermon reinforced this mentality that our life and God's blessings are performance based. If we just do the little things that we ought to do, everything else will fall into place and we will acquire God's blessing. Because after all, if we are doing the right things, God is obligated to do for us what we want Him to do. The dangerous thing about this kind of thinking is that it makes us more important than God. Think about it; my actions, thoughts, words, whatever, are what force God to do what I want Him to do. The Marvelous Mark calls this the puppy-dog mentality. When you think about it this way, you realize how blasphemous this mentality is! It's as if you snap your fingers at God, whistle and call and He must obey our call. So we place ourselves in God's place and God in our place. Wow! It's scary to realize that, isn't it?
God is the author of every good and perfect gift (James 1:17). Gifts are not the same as wages, they are given with grace and with no expectation of any payment. The breath that I am breathing, the vision that my eyes have, the ability that my hands have to type this; these are all gifts that God has given me. He is in no way obligated to give me these things, they are free and a result of His grace and goodness. God has given me the gift of Life. His grace has taken all my ugly sin, placed it on His Son and then taken the righteousness of the Son and placed it on me. What else do I need? If I am given the path of suffering, like my sisters in China, in the Sudan, and in other parts of the world are given, I still have everything because I have the surety of eternal Life with Him. If He gives me riches beyond measure and perfect health, it is His grace but still the only thing that really matters is Him. If he takes away my health and I am forced to live under a bridge and forage for food in the dumpster, the only thing that really matters is Him.
And that is what I believe about that!!

Home Projects....

While a lot of home improvement projects that one finds in a new home are things that can be put off and done over a period of time, there are a LOT that must be done fairly immediately. That being said, I'll just add that a new home can make you real tired real fast! We are thoroughly enjoying our home and even enjoying the more mundane projects that must be done. It has been a busy week. In addition to the daily household chores, Mark and I had a blast the other afternoon with a hose, some pretty dirty gutters and a mildewy porch ceiling. I felt like I was 10 years old playing under the hose in the yard! It did make a huge difference in the ceiling, too. We have decided to hold off on the rest of the outside cleaning until we get a pressure washer, and even then we'll probably wait on half of the back until a certain bird's nest is no longer in use.
On Wednesday I managed to get about 8 loads of laundry done before the evening thunderstorms came through. While I was hanging out one of the last loads, I glanced down and found a lovely surprise.


A closer inspection revealed this:


I know he doesn't have the prettiest colors I've ever seen, but I still think he is pretty and I am always fascinated by the long front legs and antennae.

While I had the camera out, I went ahead and took this picture too. Mark does grow the best tomatoes in the world!

Sadly, I have no pictures of the Birmingham Flea Market. Sigh! I had a good time, after I found it (only I could get lost with such clear directions posted on the website). It was great to meet Rhoda, Sandi and Kathi and spend time with them looking at jewelry. There was a rather interesting Gentleman there who had some good finds. I liked his old metal yard furniture; talk about nostalgia! There were several vendors with antique linens, too, and it was fun puzzling out what I could do with them and how I could embroider them for gifts. There were the ubiquitous sock-vendors, and one man with boxes of Ovaltine, soap, soup and lotions for sale (what a curious mix). I did not buy anything this time, but I just might go back and snag some of those linens for a project.
It has been a rather busy week working around the house. Laundry, mildew on the porch, gutters that needed cleaning, floors; the list is endless if you let it be. Sometimes I have to remind myself that some things are urgent and other things can wait a year or two or ten! I'm whipped from the floors, but tomorrow I'll show you an unexpected blessing God sent me while I was doing laundry on Tuesday.