They say....

......that we could get up to a foot of snow over the next two days. That, coupled with high winds, could result in some pretty exciting drifts. I'll believe it when I see it. But I did get all of my grocery shopping done today, just in case. The kids are pretty excited............

......and I must admit that I am too!:)

Feast Day Quote

"Nothing is so strong as gentleness.

Nothing so gentle as real strength."

~St. Francis de Sales

Knitted Socks for Boots.....

He flatly refuses to let them leave his feet.......

.......I foresee problems when washing time comes around.

Brown and Cream.....

I love this combination. Doesn't it make you think of a cup of deliciously rich cappuccino topped with frothy cream?

............Oh, dear! ~Now I want one! ;)

Feast Day Quote.......

If there were no tribulation, there would be no rest;

If there were no winter, there would be no summer.

~St. John Chrysostom

Waiting......

Dear husband left for a business trip to Orlando on Monday, and he's due back this afternoon. I have a big pot of sausage bean soup simmering on the stove and a batch of artisan bread rising on the counter......every thing's in order for a nice cozy evening together.

The kids and I are so excited, we can hardly wait!

Knitting and Afternoon Sun...

Enjoying both today! ;)

Feeling Blue....

I know how you feel little guy. Really, I do...;)

Flannel........

I love my flannel sheets. Especially on ridiculously cold nights. Like last night. When I happened to look at the thermometer at about ten 0'clock this morning it registered a mere eight degrees. That's ridiculously cold. We'll be keeping the fire roaring today........

Knitted Socks........

My talented mother knitted up a pair for Big Brother and for Miss Posy.



Boots is next in line.

Miss Posy loves hers so much, she just can't stop dancing around in them! ;)

Someday I will attempt socks...........someday...........

French Toast.....

Made with cinnamon raisin English muffins. (~They were on sale at Kroger....only 49 cents per package of six!)

Yes, they are good!!!

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree......

Thy leaves (aka. needles) are so deranging.

Not only on the floor below,

But everywhere they seem to go!

O Christmas Tree,*sigh* Oh, Christmas Tree!

Thy leaves (aka. needles) are so deranging.....

Blue's Baptism....

I've been meaning to post this picture for a while. We had our "Little Boy Blue" baptized on the nineteenth of December. I'll never forget how right after Father finished pouring the water over Blue's head, Miss Posy turned to me with a huge smile on her face and whispered; "Now his soul is all white, Mommy, because God lives there!" So sweet....

Gingerbread Village

We made it last weekend, from a kit my dear mother~in~law sent out for Christmas. The kids each got to decorate their own house, and had such fun!

........And tonight we plan to eat it;)

Orange and Green

Hermits.......

Since it is the feast of St. Anthony the Hermit, I thought it the perfect excuse to bake up a batch of these...........not that I really need an excuse.....;)

Cold......

Making sure to keep the fire (as well as the laundry;) going steadily today...........don't let that sunshine fool you ~it's cold!!!

Changes......

At least for now, the blog will no longer be "by invitation only". I apologize to all of those who have had trouble viewing it. From now on you shouldn't have any problems. And I 'll see how it goes............should I decide to switch back to "by invitation only" mode, I'll be sure to let you all know!

Upstairs~Girls Room, Master Bedroom, Bathroom, and Closet....

(The last of the pictures taken by my brother.) Here you see our stairway..........it is pretty narrow, but it looks even narrower in this picture.



Here is Miss Posy's room. It is immediately to the left at the top of the stairs.

And here is a shot of our room, which opens up immediately to the right of the stairs.........Don't you love that wallpaper?;) It's gone now......as well as the paneling.

Another shot of our room........its really quite large. The closet you see to the right of Big Brother is gone now. You see, the room he is stepping down from is what we plan to make our master bathroom, and there is a little room beyond that which will be a perfect walk-in closet.

Here is what will be our master bathroom........you can see back into our bedroom through the door to the left. We are thinking that eventually a nice garden tub would go perfectly under the dormer window to the right......

And this is a view of the little room that will become our walk-in closet. I am going to have so much room for clothes.... and shoes..... that I will have to make a firm resolution to be a very good girl and not fill it full of them!;)

~Oh yes, out this window you can get a glimpse of the new pole barn that sits almost directly west of the house.....just across from the garage.

~And from what we can see, all of the upstairs rooms have nice hardwood floors under the carpeting.......:)

Next time, I will post pictures of the house as it looks now. I was over there last weekend and was able to get some pictures.....

Snowy Blue Night.......

Inside~Kitchen, Hall, Bathroom, and Boys' Room...

(More pictures. courtesy of my brother;) It's so BIG!! I really love it. The guys have already torn the cupboards and old appliances out. I am planning to re-use the cupboards in the laundry/mud room, which is just off the kitchen......



The door to the left goes into the hall. You can actually see through it to the bathroom, which you can walk through to the boys' room. The door on the right leads into the dining room....

.....and here is the hall. Behind the closet on the left (which is no longer in existence;) is the door you saw above on the left that leads in to the kitchen. To the right is the door to the bathroom, and to the right of that, across from the closet, is the doorway to the stairs.......which we have opened up a bit. The hall opens up into the dining room.

Here is s shot of the bathroom. The guys have everything torn out of here now too. All that's left is the window.......don't worry. I have pictures that I will be sharing:)

Here is the boys' room, looking in from a second entrance off the living room. As you will see in the picture below this one, there is actually a closet built around this entrance! Too weird!!! The closet is gone now, as we plan to make this the only entrance to the boys' room. We will wall up the one in the bathroom, which will in turn give us some much needed space. It is so tiny in there!
Oh, and to the left in this picture, you can see the closet under the stairs (~inside the closet built around the entrance). They go up right above it.

And here's a view from near where the door opens in from the bathroom. All the paneling is gone now. You won't believe how it opens the room up!

Some of the upstairs, next time!

Inside~The Living and Dining Rooms....

The guys had already started tearing out the dropped ceiling tiles when my brother took these pictures. Below are two shots of the dining room (-the living room is through the arched doorway on the left in the first picture.)

Ignore the paneling and notice the gorgeous walnut wainscoting and molding in both rooms!( ~I will post some close up pictures that I took, later.)

.........and the lovely big windows!!!

.......and it looks like there is a really nice hardwood floor under all of this shag carpet.......

The wainscoting goes all around the living room as well ..........the photo above is a bit dark so it is hard to tell, and the paneling above doesn't help. And see the lovely brick fire place below? I have more close-ups of that to post later. The walnut mantle piece is gorgeous!

Don't worry, more pictures of the inside will soon be following these!

~Oh, and just in case you were wondering, I'm labeling these Restodling;) because I couldn't honestly say that we are completely restoring the house.........or that we are completely remodeling it either. It's a combination of both. So thus, the strange label......;)

Our House ~An Outside View.......

Well, here they are............pictures!!!!! Below is the back of the house, as you see it when you drive up behind on the driveway. A view from the north~west.

And here is the house from a bit of a north~easterly perspective...;)

This is still from the east side of the house, looking back north towards the old barn. (I'll have to put up a picture of the new pole barn that sits almost due west of the house...)

And here is the front portion of the house, which faces south..........and the road.(~ Though as I mentioned before the house sits so far back that you can't even really see the road at all! Love it!;) And the two trees out front are much bigger than they look in the pictures......

Another view of the south side of the house......Won't it look so cute with shutters?

And I know.........it desperately needs porches. Don't worry, we plan to add them sometime in the preferably near future. And a big deck under those gorgeous trees out front.......

Pictures of the inside are coming up next.......

So Sweet.......

Epiphany......

Arrangement by Miss Posy.

She was so excited when she heard that she could put the kings in the stable today.....

Happy feast day!