Love Is....

Love Is....

Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Spring has Sprung!!!!!


Beautiful daffodils surprised me today when I was walking along the North Platte River at lunch!  Just a reminder that God is everywhere, all the time which is SO incredibly comforting.


Heath has worked really hard on the beautiful flag pole and cannon out front  Recently, the wind broke the rope on the flag, so while we had his dad's tractor here, he used it to replace the rope with some stronger cable stuff.  This was definitely not a safe thing for him to do by himself and before I knew it, he was walking back into the house as his ladder had fallen down while he was up in the bucket, so he had to jump down out of the bucket.  Ridiculous, I say, ridiculous!

Monday, March 30, 2015

Outdoor Progress....

Heath brought home some steel today.  He has an idea in mind that we saw in Texas and liked.  This will definitely be a conglomeration of pieces once it is complete.  Heath is so good at building, designing, imagining, and dreaming!

New project in the making!

Briggsy and Mya helping me clean and hang the chicken waterers in the trees for our lovely flock as they are roaming the farm during the days.  I put one in the front yard and one in the back yard so they don't have to walk all of the way back to the coop to get a drink of water.  They are spoiled!  :)

My helpers.

Sunday, March 29, 2015

Indoor Progress....

So, while I was down and out, sitting in our living room for days, I decided that it was very dark.  With that, I had some time to play around on Houzz.com and come up with some fun ideas to try.   I even contacted an interior designer friend-of-my-parent's in Springfield, Illinois.  (Check out her designs on Houzz.com.  http://www.houzz.com/pro/loismooredesign/lolo-moore-periwinkles.  The are phenomenal, especially if you are like me and *LOVE* bRiGHt colors!)

After talking with my mama about the darkness of my living room and desire to make some changes, we started to brainstorm.  She introduced me to the idea of simply picking out and purchasing a slip cover instead of buying a brand new couch or couches....GREAT idea Mama, thank you!  So, I began researching slip covers:  colors, styles, sizes, etc.  Being frugal minded, I still couldn't justify this purchase because of price (although way) less that purchasing a new couch.  Soooo....we went back to the drawing board.  I got my thinking cap on and got onto Pintrest, which Mama introduced me to while I was sick.  Watch out world!  LOL!  I have some *cRAzY* fun ideas that came off of there!

Anyway, someone had the idea to simply use a painter's canvas drop cloth from Menard's or Walmart.  So, that is what I did.  Plain and simple!  My brown, really comfortable couch, is now a nice, light, cream color and my multi-colored floral couch is the same.  WoW, what a difference that made for only $20 a piece and machine washable!  I talked my daddy into helping move a few pieces of furniture around as well as the dog beds.  Then, got out my sewing machine to make a few *colorful* throw pillows.  Quick, cheap makeover!  (My only disclaimer is that if you have kids and or lots of couch activity, they probably aren't the best because they tend to move around a bit.  I haven't figured out quite yet how to hold them in place.  I'm sure there is something out there that will remedy that issue.)

Living Room Before....

$20 Painter's Canvas Drop Cloth....Menard's or Walmart

.....progress taking shape!

Dad helped me paint our kitchen door.  It came brown which was fine before we remodeled the kitchen and went with the bright theme, so it was time for a change.  A quick couple coats of picket fence white paint and wa-la!  Bright, refreshing kitchen.

Kitchen Door Before.... 

Kitchen Door After!

 Mama gave me a sewing machine several years ago.  Still in it's new box, I got it out and dusted it off.  For the first time in it's life, it was going to be used.   After much thought on colors, I purchased some duck cloth patterned pillow material at our new Hobby Lobby.  What a fun store!  I was able to use some of the pillow forms from old pillows that came with the brown couch.  So....never using a machine by myself before, I set out for help from my neighbor and her kids.  They were SUPER helpful and we had a fun time working through a few different options!

New Sewing Machine


My neighbor had a great idea to make an envelop pillow.  The one shown above is one I made on my own which turned out great, but you have to hand stitch it closed.  With the envelop pillow, you don't have to do any hand sewing and the case can be removed and washed!  Best of both worlds~especially when a certain black dog of mine tends to sneak up on the couch when we are gone during the day.  Evidence:  black dog hair all over my nice white sofa and new pillows!

A work in progress!

Friday, March 27, 2015

Dirty Work

Entrance is a secret hole underneath my stove in the kitchen.


So, the whole time my dad has been here (and I have been laying in bed not feeling well), he has been helping us dig out our crawl space.  It is so tight under there, my 6'5" husband has a tough time fitting.  Last winter, he had to get down there to unthaw a pipe and he made it work, like a champ!  I couldn't believe A) that he could fit and B) he wasn't scared one bit of the dark, damp, tight, COLD crawl.



Thank YOU Daddy!

Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Another Sick Day

He snuck into my dad's room and through the connecting
closet into the office.  The door to the office was closed,
but that didn't stop him.  Apparently, this is where he
wanted to rest this morning.

From rain last night to snow actively falling this morning to....

....a beautiful Spring day!

My Buddy.

Both of my buddies stayed home with Mama today!  YAY!  :)

Dad just got home with our newly remodeled 3020 John Deere.

It looks Awesome!

All that HARD work paid off~Heath, Dad, and Garry, thank you!

Our rhubarb is growing strong already!

Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Sick Day

Little Man cuddling with me.

I had a rough night last night and woke up this morning not feeling well at all.  After my decision to stay home from work, I called Heath at work and told him.  He asked me if there was anything he could do.  I just told him that I was going to try to get a doctor's appointment today.  At this point, Dad had already headed out to get some tractor parts before heading over to Garry's again to work on our tractor.  I called him after I had confirmed a 10:30 am doctor appointment.  It is not with my regular doctor, but same clinic.  Thank goodness for the short notice availability!  I am grateful!  My daddy was able to take me to the doctor before heading to Garry's with the dogs.

True definition of curled up.

Dad took me to the doctor and then to get a sandwich to bring home so we didn't have to cook.  We also were able to get my prescription filled at the pharmacy.  This made me realize how amazingly fortunate and blessed we are to be able to have this type of access.

Feel Awful, scared, not sure what is wrong
Go to Doctor, get a diagnosis, and an antibiotic
Get Prescription Filled
Start Feeling Better within 24-48 hours

I cannot even imagine not being able to have access to this kind of care.  For this, I am grateful!  The doctor thought I might have a touch of bronchitis, but she wasn't sure.  They took my vitals...no temperature, regular heart beat, and low blood pressure (which is normal).  I am supposed to take the antibiotic twice a day for five days.  If I do not show signs of improvement, I am supposed to call and schedule another appointment for further review.


It was a quiet day as I have moved from my bed all day to in my chair all day.  I watched the grass grow out the floor-length window and the hands on the clock go round and round all day.  QUIET~no dogs, just my cat who was in and out all day.  Heath got home and then Dad and the dogs.  So excited to have company even though I am not in the mood or up to partying....just having them back in the house and the dogs too was a great spirit booster!  Heath brought me some butter brickle ice cream but I didn't like it so I shared it with my cuddle-buddy.  I think he liked it!

Dad bought some Papa Murphy's pizza for tonight since the birthday celebration didn't occur due to me being a party-pooper.  We are going to try again on Thursday as we will not be headed to Colorado now.

Monday, March 23, 2015

Chokecherry Pies

I got up, showered, curled my hair, and went to work today.  I thought that if I got up and got ready that would help me feel better.  This is the first time that I have been out of bed for a long period of time since coming home from work on Friday around 12:30 pm.  I soon realized that I probably overdid it.  When I told Frank that I wasn't sure how long I would last, he totally understood.  By the time we had our morning meeting and I got through balancing my cash, I looked down and it was already noon.  WHERE~OH~WHERE has the day gone?  This I asked myself.

The day was over before I knew it as I kept super busy with my work that needed to be accomplished.  Thank you Lord for the focus and drive to push through and get those things accomplished.

My Honey helping me in this photo-opt.  :)

Doesn't everyone CRAVE a s'more every
once in a while?  Be honest with yourself now.

When I got home, I totally intended on sitting and resting, but I got the wild urge to first make a s'more and to second make a chokecherry pie for my Dad's birthday celebration at my in-laws tomorrow night.  We decided that we would have a nice supper over at their house tomorrow, Tuesday night, because Wednesday we have AWANA and then Thursday, Dad and I plan to head back to Colorado for the weekend.  Heath will join us on Friday night or Saturday and we will drive home together on Sunday.  This will give us a nice little weekend away that we both need and we will get to spend my Dad's birthday with him!  We have had this planned ever since my boss told me that I have earned two days off that needed to be used by the end of March.  :)

Pies in the making....

Final product....4 layers of yummy goodness!  My dad always liked Grandma's cherry pie, so this is the Western
Nebraska version (thank you to our chokecherry trees 2013 production)!  My father-in-law loves
chokecherries and this pie is one of his favorites that I make.  One for each of them!

Sunday, March 22, 2015

Sunday


Heath headed out early this morning to go hunting again with Danny.  We were hoping that I would be able to join him this morning, but still feeling yucky and need to get some more rest.  I was in bed when Dad arrived midmorning.  As you can see from the photo above, my little buddy decided to lay with me while I read and blogged from bed.  My beautiful *bright* colored room really helped me be at peace.  Thank you Honey for making it so beautiful!

When Dad arrived, he quickly noticed that Miss Mya was missing.  I informed him that she was out hunting with Heath.  So, Dad played with Briggsy for a while and checked on the birdies and gave Penney a scratch.  He captured this beautiful photo of Petey roosting up on top of the chicken coop.

BIG *bright* BeAUtiFUL!
Photo by Steve Park

When Dad got back in, I was able to get out of bed for a few minutes as he helped me take off the sheets to get to the laundry.  He fixed my clothes line so that we could have fresh line-dried sheets and found other projects to work on until Heath arrived home and they worked together.  We had a relaxing day and Heath made us breakfast for dinner.  Yum!  :)

Saturday, March 21, 2015

Sick/Chili Cookoff

Heath got to go goose hunting this morning with Danny!

When he got home he got the chairs out so I could get some sun.
We were just hoping that this would help revive me.

Briggs stood guard while I had my snack of mango and PNB
and honey on a graham cracker.











And the winners ARE:
Best Cinnamon Rolls:  Barb Miller
Best Chili:  Bethany Adams
People's Choice Chili:  Lively's
Hottest Chili:  Heath Senkel
CONGRATULATIONS ALL!