Valentine's Day

Mel and I enjoyed a quiet Valentine's Day at home.  I made a red velvet cake for us and we had chicken fry steak with the works.  Home is a great place to be!
I had bought a heart shaped pan so this is what I used for our cake.

The batter in the pan

The finished cake

My sweet hubby bought me the cutest card - it played music when opened!

Cinnamon Rolls for the Senior Citizens' Center

I made the Pioneer Woman's recipe for cinnamon rolls to take to the Senior Citizens' Center.  This recipe is so easy, makes quite a few and freezes so well that I have made it numerous times. 
After the baking and cooling the rolls are bagged up for the home-bound ones and put on plates for the ones who eat at the center. 

 The morning was so foggy and the temperatures were hoovering close to freezing.  What another good day to be in the kitchen baking!!

Winter Weather of 2012

We had our first winter weather for 2012 with snow and then some sleet.  About an inch was what we received - enough to be pretty, not cause many problems and leave quickly.
A good Monday to be inside, enjoy the weather (from my point of view) and to cook.  I made the Pioneer Woman's recipe for lasagna to have this week-end when our kids from Texas come to visit.

The Winter Scene

I thoroughly enjoy being in the kitchen cooking and baking during bad weather!

The Lasagna

 The lasagna without the cheese on top -  I am freezing it for a few days and will put the cheese on right before I bake it.



Grammy's Breakfast

Grammy hosted a breakfast for her Sunday School Class in our home.  We had ham, sausage, biscuits, gravy, fresh fruit with dip, mini Swiss cheese & bacon quiches and spinach & Swiss cheese quiches.
Eleven sweet ladies were here. 
Mel was the"waiter" for juice, coffee, and water to the women.  It was so cute when they would call for Mel to refill their cups or glasses.  What a great job he did!  (possibly a new career path for him?).
Everyone enjoyed good food and a great time visiting.

The Tables



The Fantastic Waiter with Coffee and Juice

What a special time together!

Can I Fool the Cows?

Mel went to the funeral of a good friend's wife in Yukon early Monday morning.  I stayed home to do the chores and deliver meals to the shut-ins.  To make it easy for me to feed, my sweet thoughtful hubby put the cubes in the troughs the night before so all I had to do was open the gate to let the cows in to eat.
Time to feed:   I drove the pick-up close to the gate, got out, and opened the gate to let the cows come in.  They stood there and looked at me.  Okay, maybe if I shake the cubes around in the troughs so they will know feed is there that would convince them cubes are in the troughs.  Still, they stood and looked at me.  Another thought - maybe since I was not the regular feeder for them, if I left, they would come in to eat.  I got in the pick-up, drove to the barn, fed the cats and horses.  I glanced to see if the cows were eating.  No!  They were still standing there and bawling this time.  What to do next?  Let's see -  I had 2 buckets in the back of the pick-up with cubes for the 7 heifers at the annex.   If I go back to the troughs with the buckets, shake the buckets so they hear the cubes rattle inside and then pretend to pour the cubes in the troughs, maybe just maybe, they will believe they have feed in the troughs.  This is what I did.  Sure enough after I performed my "little trick" and left the pen,  they hustled in to eat. 
Nothing quite like trying to "fool a cow"! 
My dear hubby had a good laugh when I told him the story.

Jett Comes to the Farm

Jett came to the farm for a few days.  Luckily this time we had beautiful weather considering it was January.  We met Mitch, Amberlea and Jett at Rudy's in Norman to bring "the little guy" to the farm.  The barbeque was delicious!

Grandmom put on her "teacher hat" for his home schooling while he was here.  We worked on counting and writing the number and word for ten blocks and ones - making numbers between 1 and 100.
Explode the Code involved sounding out words, reading questions then selecting the correct picture. 
He put time-line cards in the correct sequence for history.We practiced his skip counting, history sentence, Latin words and more. 
For science we used a magnifying glass to look at herb plants.  I had planted the seeds and the seedlings were coming up.  Some had the cracked seed still on the end of the plant.  He also investigated other things around the house with the magnifying glass.

His Reading and Phonics Work

Investigating the Herb Plants

Checking out Various Pictures and Textures

Boys and Outdoor Play

We had more outside play time since we could take advantage of the nice weather.
He washed his rock collection, played in the sand in the sand table, then with his magnifying glass saw "gold" in the sand particles while he was "panning for gold".  Wow!  We should be rich he told us when he saw so many gold speckles in the sand. 

Bandit, the cat, is right in the midst of things.

You might as well make yourself comfortable while playing in the sand!

Craft Time

Delivering Meals

We delivered food to the shut-in senior citizens one of the days.  Jett was a big helper by carrying one of the boxes, then he would hand me the bread and dessert cup for each stop we made.

Barn Time

The highlight of farm days is going to the barn for chores!

Don't you just love this look?   Jett borrowed Mat's hat. 

The Chickens
Jett gathered the eggs.

Jett was talking to the rooster.  He had run up to the chickens and was talking to the chickens.  Later, the rooster seemed to want to chase him.  Jett was rather cautious around the rooster after that.  In fact, when he ran to Ft. McHenry to play, the rooster was right behind him.  Jett called for me to come.  I stood between the rooster and Jett just to make sure. 
The rooster is very protective of the chickens.  I notice that he seems to stand "guard" while the chickens are outside searching for insects.

A close-up picture of our rooster - he is a "handsome one"!

The hens and the rooster on their "stroll" to the barn door to go into their indoor pen.

Jett was waiting to close the pen door.

The Horses

Petting, feeding and just sitting on the horses entertains a boy.

The Swing

The grandkids have had so much fun on the swings Grandpop build out of scraps!

The Hay Bales
Jett was not quite tall enough to climb on the bales himself so he got Grandpop's stool.

He told me he was reading the instructions on the inside and how not to stand on the stool.

What fun!!

Grammy Came to Visit
Jett told Grammy about his day and what he had done.

What fun we had! 
We are looking forward to his return as well as the visit of Jacob, Mathew, Emma and McKaylea!