MY NEW OLD LIGHT

My new old light that came about after seeing a photo of one Tammy at A Primitive Place included in her February 17, 2012 post. I new I just had to make one. I made mine a bit different. I put lids on all my jars but the middle one & included a jar lamp kit in the middle jar running the cord behind the window trim to the outlet. I bought four screw in cup hooks to hang the rack from under the kitchen cupboard above the sink. So this little project took little time & only cost .98 cents for the hooks. I can take it down easily to clean the jars & rack. Quick run through in the dishwasher.

Just seeing if it would fit. Oh how ugly the old light is. I have always hated it. It was in the house when we moved in 16 years ago.

Sam took a photo while I held the rack & jars up so I could get an idea what it would look like. We agreed it would be perfect as a light above the sink. Got to just love this boy. He is always a big help to his Mom.

My new old light is new to the homestead kitchen but made from old items. I bought the old jars at my Pap & Grams estate sale. I had asked my mother that day if there was an old caner rack there. Sure enough Gram had kept an extra one over the years so my mother gave it to me. For a long time I had this sitting on my kitchen counter with a candle in the middle. Changed things up & put it in Paps old chest in front of the fireplace. It came back out this week along with a lamp jar adapter I also had stashed in the ho osier cabinet. Now I will see my Grams old jars & caner rack each day. I can just hear what my mother will say when she sees it. Oh you gotta be kidding me. Special thanks to Tammy for sharing the photo she found on Etsy.

Blessings Til Next Time!
Lara

EASY FROZEN KEY LIME PIE

Come along & follow me as I make a sweet treat tonight!

1 (21oz.) Lucky Leaf Key Lime Pie Filling
4 oz. Whip Cream
9" Graham Cracker Pie Shell


In a mixing bowl stir together thawed whip cream & key lime pie filling. Fill the pie crust with the mixture & freeze until firm to slice.

Garnish with sliced strawberries whip cream & blueberries served with piping hot mint chocolate hot cocoa topped off with more whip cream. Time for me to enjoy as I catch up reading your blogs.

Blessings Til Next Time!

The Versatile Blogger Award

I was passed on the Versatile Blogger Award by Stephani from Front Porch Primitives this week. http://frontporchprimitives.blogspot.com

Some things you may not know about me follows:

1 I am the mother of four in my mid fourties. The grandmother of three. Two of
of my children have spread their wings & left the nest. Two of my children
are still in the nest but one is starting to spread his wings.

2 I would very much like to add a miniature donkey & a lamb to the homestead
creatures some day.

3 I love old log cabins & really hope to own one sometime soon.

4 I would like to visit all the New England states.

5 I enjoy creating things with my hands & would like to try cross stitching &
rug hooking.

6 The newest item that is on my list of treasures to find is an antique oak
bookcase. Not to put books in but to put my baskets filled with sewing projects in .

7 Ten years ago I pretty much withdrew from the world. But since finding the world of blog land it has helped me see & join the world again. Thank you all for reading my blog & leaving the comments that have brightened my days. Thank you Stephani for thinking of me.

Blessings Til next Time!

Washington's Birthday

A quote by George Washington:
We should not look back unless it is to derive useful lessons from past errors, and for the purpose of profiting by dearly bought experience.

Blessings Til next Time!
Lara

For My Friends

Any woman who sews or knits or weaves blends colors in a tapestry or creates a patchwork quilt knows by the feel that a single thread is weak but the weaving the blending the intertwining with many others makes it strong.

Any woman alone without friends to sustain her to nurture and support to hold with loving arms like a single thread is weak. But the weaving the loving the nurturing of others the networks of friendship makes her strong.

Barbara - 1994 The Kinship of Women

I read this poem in the Mary Janes Idea Book - Cookbook - Lifebook for the farmgirl in all of us this week. It made me think of all my blog friends & how much you all mean to me.

Blessings Til next Time!
Lara

Photo used for this post is Tasha Tudor & her home.

Grands Visit Again / Laken Meets Strangers

It was a busy day today. I got the boys off to school & then picked Laken up & she drove me back to the homestead & left straight for work. Atlee called to see what I was doing. He wanted to bring the girls for another visit. His work was canceled since it was raining. I hurried to bake cupcakes. I had just finished feeding the creatures & gathering the eggs when they arrived. They were excited to see the eggs & wanted to help wash them. They put them in the cartons after being concerned there may be baby chicks in them.

Next they wanted to know if they could play with the lego blocks. I told them I still had the farm they built last week & I wanted to take a picture before they tore it apart.

I gave them the picture books & paint sets I got them for valentines Day. They passed on playing with the lego blocks to paint. I made slippery potpie while they painted & talked about preschool. The boys came home from school & off I ran Lucas to work while Sam visited with his nieces & big brother. When I returned Laken was home from work playing with the girls. Laken hurried off to see her boyfriend. Just could not wait to eat. Finally diner was done & we ate. The girls decorated their own cupcake. They ask if they could eat them. Why of course thats why I left you decorate it them yourselves I told them.

Before they left for home I brought the bunnies in to play again. They fed them cabbage left from the coleslaw & carrots. Atlee took me to get my truck from Laken on there way home. Hugs & kisses were given & good byes were said as we parted. Such a treat to see my Grands & my oldest son twice in the past two weeks. I have to take a break now. Lucas just sent me a text letting me know he will be getting off work early so I must be heading out again. I am back. Lucas did not pass his drivers test last Tuesday. He removed one hand from the wheel & opened his fingers on his other hand as he turned the wheel keeping his palm on the wheel while making a turn. He was failed for what the examiner called palming it. There is no school Friday so he wanted to stop & pick Laken up so she could drive them back to her boyfriends house to hang out with them tonight. Laken was telling me she run into someone before work while getting gas today that she did not want to see or talk to. A woman & man she met at work Last Sunday. After conversation & being gave the phone number again they parted. She told me it was my fault because I told her to put gas in the truck today. Last Sunday while working a man & woman asked her you don't know us do you? She said no & the woman said this is your father. Pretty blunt & to the point. (why would Laken know him or her the last times he visited her for about ten minute she was five when he dropped bike off at her babysitters for her birthday then when she was seven he was in the neighborhood stopped in with a friend the police was looking for both of them drunk & he staggered into our yard talking to her & Lucas. He scared them & they came running into the kitchen crying some stranger was trying to kidnap them in a red truck. The police had to be called to remove him it got so bad. He was still beating on the door when they arrived. They put him in jail for three months and the friend was picked up after a police chase). Before he left Lakens place of employment Sunday he gave her his number & told her if she ever wanted to talk or visit give him a call. While pumping her gas today the girlfriend & he came up to her & said you didn't call me & gave her his number again & told her to call him. She told me she didn't need him telling her what to do since he was never in her life for the past twenty years & she didn't even know who he was & what did he think I was going to do just drop my life & call him? She is not a happy young girl. I am worried he is just going to hurt her. Atlee had motioned to me tonight that his father seen Laken last Sunday. He was not impressed with how his fathers girlfriend bluntly told Laken the man was her father. The woman has been his fathers girlfriend for maybe a year & dose not even know Laken or even me for that matter. Laken is going to be 21 in 4 months & her biological father is going to find out quick he is not going to tell her what to do. Atlee it 30 years old & over just the last five years since he was 14 years old has been the only time he has been around his father & there has been many disappointments & disagreements. At times Atlee has wrote his father off. Laken has always known about her biological father. Sam & Lucas's father raised Laken as his own from 13 months old until 19 years old when he decided she was just his step daughter last year after he got mad at her. I believe a well known saying to be true. To Be In Your Childrens Memories Tomorrow You Have To Be In Their lives Today. Both these fathers are going to find in the end they are going to pay for what they have & have not done. Children are blessings & meant to me loved & taken care of.

Blessings til Next time!
Lara

Bonnets For The Shop / Thankfulness Mixed With Sadness

I finished sewing the bonnets for the shop orders & got them coffee stained last night. They will soon be dry & ready to make their trip to the shop. I am hoping the shop keepers are happy with them & they sell fast. I have enjoyed making them. Seeing the fabric pieces all sewed together making a bonnet.

I had quite a scare Friday night. Laken had went to work early that day. Lucas went to hang out with her boyfriend after school & wait for Laken to get off work. Laken was not home at the time she should have been. Watching out the windows for headlights to come back the lane & praying as the minutes passed by. The snow was falling the ground was covered. The phone rang. The caller id was Lakens number. When I answered it was Lucas. He said that Laken & he were going to be late. I was confused as to why he was calling from Lakens phone when he was just out the road at Lakens boyfriends house. I asked what was going on. Lucas told me Lakens boyfriend had been in an accident with two of their other friends. They had tryed to avoid hitting a large rock in the roadway & started sliding on the snow covered roadway while missing hitting some trees. The vehicle flipped onto its side. Laken & Lucas were going to help them. I knew Laken would be in no shape to drive. I said I would meet them & I would drive. Lucas insisted they were almost to the accident. More waiting & worrying. Finally Laken called & she was crying. She could not find the accident. Someone else brought her boyfriend home & she was at her boyfriends house. She did not want to drive anymore & wanted me to come get my truck. She said knowing her boyfriend & friends could have been killed & remembering back to her own wreak last June was to much. I had to ask was Lucas in the wreck? The answer was no but he could have been. Lucas went with Laken's boyfriend & the other friends to meet Laken after work & follow her home. Laken had asked Lucas if he wanted to get something to eat with her at McDonald's. Lucas got in the truck with Laken & when they were done eating Laken took her normal route home & their friends & her boyfriend took another route. I have much to be thankful for. Lucas was not in the wreck & their friends are all ok. This is not the first phone call of this type I have gotten. Last June I got the call Laken had rolled my jeep & was being taken to the hospital. I had shared this in a post last June. Fourteen years ago I received the phone call that my son Atlee could not be found & he could be one of the unidentified victims involved in an accident. The car had hit a utility pole snapping it in half & then struck several trees before coming to rest on its roof trapping the victims inside the car. I went right away to look for Atlee. I was told by the fireman that three were killed & another was seriously injured. None of them were Atlee but he thought at the time of using the jaws of life & air bags to remove the victims from the car one was Atlee but discovered it was Atlee's best friend. Atlee & his best friend looked some what alike. No one knew where Atlee was still. I found him the next day. He & another friend was in the car but got out after an argument. They had refused to ride with the others. I was thankful my son was not in the car & was physically ok. In the days that came & three funerals it really took a toll on Atlee.

Atlees best friend had wrote this poem just a few weeks before his death. I have kept his poem all these years & it has been a reminder of the sad loss of him & a reminder that God spared my Atlee.

The Judge
It's time to face the final words. Looking at all the people makes me scared. I saw a big glare and I just stared: like a statue in the sky. The glare was the judges eyes meeting mine. Then he said Life without parole. Then I woke up, (Just a dream) Then I said to myself It's time to change.

This boy was only 17 years old. I have always believed God was reaching out to this boy through his poem. He looked somewhat like my son Atlee but had baby blue eyes & could look me straight in the eye & lie while laughing. I will never understand why. I cared for this young boy & wanted to help him. Since then I have seen my Atlee grow in to a good young man & loving father. Some people stand still in time & are always young in our memories. In the past three years there has been three other very young teens from my children's school who have lost their lives in tragic accidents. The last one being just twelve days ago. Crosses with their names stuffed animals solar lights & flowers mark the roadways at the locations of each their accidents. It weighs on my heart at their loss. The pain there families & friends have gone through since their loss. There lives being so short. Something I can not understand. I continue to tell my children they need to be ready at all times. We never know when God will take us & we need to be sure of were we will spend eternity.I pray they understand just how important this is & open their hearts to God.

I give thanks to God my children have all been spared & are still with me.

Blessings Til Next Time!
Lara