January 7th

 Girls got here around 6:30am. They were tired. Caroline a little cranky. So far I've already had to handle three tantrums and it's only 8am. Guess I'm gonna have to up my game. 

We ate some breakfast and I think that calmed her down a bit. She is not herself when she's hungry. 😁🤪

We are eating breakfast and Atleigh notices our lettuce growing in our Aerogarden. She's says she wants a sald for lunch. I love my Aerogarden. 

This is our experimental cherry tomato 🍅 that we planted in our Aerogarden back in the late fall. It already has a bloom. 

I'm going to plant a pepper plant next so the girls can have a pepper to dip into ranch dressing.  They love them. 

Me and Atleigh did some stretches. She loves to do them with me. Caroline, not so much. She would just hang from the ceiling and swing like a monkey 🐒 if she could. LOL.

It was time to take shower and baths 🛁 and get ready for the day. 

I gave them a snack while I finished putting up some block cheese. 

We all started getting tired so I figured it was time for nap. We read a Bible story and then we were out. 

We got up and I gave them a late lunch. I made them their little salad like I promised.  

Me and Atleigh started supper. We made our own fettuccine noodles to make homemade shrimp Alfredo with spinach creme sauce. She loves helping me use my mixer and make noodles. Caroline is interested for a bit but then goes and plays. 

As we were cooking, Dakota came to pick up girls. He was going to cook supper for them and his acquaintance.  He wanted us to meet her. In all honesty, my heart just did flip flops. I was just not ready. I'm still processing what all has happened. I personally think he is just on the rebound but if this is his way of coping with everything, then so be it. I told him at first I was just not ready and he was moving a little too fast for me, but it hurt his feelings and the last thing I want is our kid to shut us out. So I told him to bring her in. She was sitting in the truck. We met her and of course asked questions cause that's just how I am. The girls seem to like her.  

We can't live our kids lives for them. Some things we just have to let God deal with. We have had to realize times aren't like they use to be and sometimes it doesn't matter what you teach your kids, they have to make decisions on their own. I can't answer for his decisions and he can't answer for ours. Yes, it breaks parents hearts. Things would be a whole lot simpler if they would. 

Me and dad ate supper and it was delicious. It took me an hour to clean up the kitchen but we had fun. Dear hubby cleaned up the toys in the living room. Now we are sitting down and enjoying a nice fire the rest of the night.  

Earlier today:

Sometimes you just have to teach a toddler to clean up their own mess since you have cleaned up after them 4 times already and asked them nicely,

January 6th

 Girls arrived around 6:30am. It is 27 degrees outside. We just sat for a few minutes and had milk and coffee to wake up. We ate breakfast. I batch cook alot of muffins, waffles and pancakes and freeze them so we can always have some on hand and just heat them up for a quick breakfast. They love them with Whipped cream and sprinkles. Hey, pick your battles. I sneak oatmeal flour and sweet potatoes or pumpkin puree into them so they are eating healthy. 

Then we were busy for a little while. 

We took baths and showers and then we processed some block cheese that we bought and sectioned it up and put in bags and in the freezer for meal prep. We don't like buying the preshredded cheese unless we have to because of the starch they use as preservative. Atleigh helped me put it into the freezer. 

We ate lunch then it was nap time because Caroline was trying to fall asleep at the table. Bless her. 

We got up from nap and played for a few minutes then we started getting ready for church. Christmas break is over and all the kids have resumed school.  Our church has a program that we pick up kids from our local elementary and high school and we feed and minister to them. I help in the preschool class. 

I dropped the girls off at home and then came home and just got comfy and settled down. Phew, I'm tired. 

Til mornin', hope y'all have a good night. 

January 5th Happenings

 Well, it's 6:30 am and our grandblessings have arrived for the morning.  I've been up since 5:30 am letting the coffee touch my soul per say. ❤😛 

When they get here so early, we keep the lights low and just sit and watch some cartoons until we wake up, seeings though we still have a teenager in the home that is sleeping in. He will go up to the school later for one of his classes in Welding. 

Already she feels like I need to be a Princess 👸

We ate breakfast. Did some stretches which I'm going to start doing more of to help my joints with RA.  Atleigh loves to do them with me while Caroline likes to roughhouse.  

This little one runs to Poppie and says, "Whoop Gmaw!" Then Atleigh runs to my defense.  You don't mess with her Gmaw. Poppie spats me a couple of times on the rear just playing and Atleigh has a melt down and starts crying. Poppie puts Caroline down to pick up Atleigh to console her and tell her he was just playing, while Caroline points her finger and says, "That's what you get!" She hears that quite often you know. 🙄🤦‍♀️ This is ours days occasionally.  ❤

Then it was off to take baths and showers to start our day. 

Atleigh wants to do some school. So I saw something on a homeschool moms YouTube channel and I made a game with clothes pins and popsicle sticks. Matching colors and finding the missing number. 

 We eat lunch and take a nap. I have to take a nap everyday even if I don't have them for a day. My RA want let me make it a whole day. 

3:45 pm, we are awake and I need some more coffee. 😅😅 now it's time for round two. We had a little snack and some juice and Dakota came and picked them up. This is his week. For the life of me, I'm having trouble grasping that concept. If you don't know what I'm talking about,  you can catch it a few posts back. I never thought this would happen to my son or our family but we are coping.  The one good thing of it is, when he has them for a week, he comes and gets them at a more decent hour because he gets off earlier. They get home and get to play and Dakota cooks supper and gets them into a better bedtime routine. They still have to get up early, but that's just life with kids when you work. 

Me and Poppie can unwind now and cook supper and have the night to ourselves. 

Supper: air fried squash,  homemade scalloped potatoes,  and dear hubby roasted a chicken . 🐔

Dallas is probably eating with his girlfriend and her parents or he picked himself up something to eat in town. He has had a busy day. He went to school this morning, then PT afterwards and then to Brylees house. He will be tired when he comes in. 

I will clean the kitchen in a few and settle down for the night.  There are some ladies I follow on YouTube and I love to keep with their new videos as soon as they come out. 

I will tell you their names and their channels. 

First is Jordan Page from funcheaporfree.com

Her content is frugal living, budgeting,  finances, parenting with 9 to 11 kids. I can't remember right off the top of my head, twins were born last. And marriage. 

Jamerill Stewart at Large Family Table. They also have 9 kids and expecting the 10th. She homeschools all of them. She cooks large meals because she has to. She just has the sweetest personality. 

Emily Norris. Mom content. Cleaning, cooking,  parenting,  marriage  etc. 

Kimmy, from She's In Her Apron. Same content above. 

Jennifer Fudge from the Family Fudge. Homeschooling, organization, the coolest lunch making videos called Bunches of Lunches.  I actually get alot of ideas from her. 

Tiffany Beaston which I think I mentioned her in my last post. Her and her husband both have YouTube channels. They have 4 kids 5 and under. I love watching them to help me stay on track with toddlers. 

I have more, but these are the top of my list. 

I hope y'all check them out.  Well, I'm going to sign off for the day and relax. 

Tomorrow I would encourage everyone to pray and pray 🙏 hard for our leaders and country. 

Thoughts For Today

 I know I've said this before, but I've got to use my blog more. Social Media is becoming a mess and it just gets me in all kinds of moods. 

I will start with this:

I made this years ago. I've put it within eyesight to remind me again. You know, toddlers and all. 🤦‍♀️🤪❤❤ I have my granddaughters basically more than mommy and daddy does. They both have jobs and work alot. I am so glad I am able to help though. I'd rather them be with me than with someone that we don't trust to even know if they are being taken care of properly, cause, trust me,  anyone lays a hand on my babies and I will make prison orange look like sophisticated fuscia. 😈

I have to remember, I'm not as young as I use to be and I have to remember what it was like with our own boys. When you have kids it's not about you anymore. You have someone else's needs to think about. It is no problem for me to put someone else before me, I've done it for 30 yrs. We are living in a culture today that thinks the opposite.  It's all about me me me. Kids are getting caught up in this Whirlwind that grown ups put them in. Kids don't ask for chaos. I am a firm believer in routines and schedules. Kids thrive on it and act better and perform better. They feel more secure, and emotionally stable. 

It is hard some days when these girls get in bed late and have to get up at 5 or 6 am the next morning.  Talk about cranky. Let that go on for two or three days in a row and we are in for whining, crying,  irritability,  and melt downs every few minutes. Yes, I know. Sometimes I have to separate them and give them their space. Then times I have to distract them with something else. This is Parenting Round 2 for us. I am not exaggerating when I say our grandkids are EXACTLY the same personalities.  Our firstborn kid and firstborn granddaughter is exactly the same. I also have to remember to just let them be kids so they can just get alot of pinned up frustrations out.

9 times last night I heard:

"Caroline,  quit touching me!"

"Caroline, get off me!"

"Gmaw,  Caroline is touching me!"

Caroline growls. 

Mind you,  this is an everyday thing. 

So.... I have two toddler beds and two sleeping bags on their way. 😅😅😅😅😅😅 ain't got time for this. #kickingthemoutoftheprincessbed

This is what some of our mornings look like:

Poppie and I have got it going on though. Just like we did when our boys were younger.  We are tag teaming. We work together. If there is something I need to do, he entertains the girls and vice versa. We share the responsibility. After all, that's what parenting is. I know that husbands and wives have certain rolls in the home especially if the mom is a stay at home mom, however, we all could use an extra hand now and then just as acts of kindness. That is a whole other post for me. This year I am going to be working on a new page to add to my blog. It will be on parenting. Not that we are experts, but just sharing ideas and thoughts that might help some young parents out there. ❤❤

I've decided that I want to blog more instead of so much social media. I think everyday I will leave my app open to jot down thoughts and ideas as the day passes. So my posts may be scatter brained and look like a squirrel moments, but at least I'll be on here more. 😂😂 

Here is another rambling thought:

I don't know what the heck has happened to country music but if these so called new artists would come up with their own songs and quit taking other artists songs and remaking them, that would be great. I mean, I could do that and become famous. And stick to country.  🤠🤦‍♀️

And another: 

Sometimes I have trouble looking on the bright side of things because somethings just ought not happen to begin with. Let that sink in.

As the new year is upon us I want to say this:

We can follow our heart all we want to but it may not be what God has planned for us. He shuts doors for a reason. We just have to wait and see what comes about. Best thing to do us PRAY and let God show you. Some times the things we want will not be good for us. Let God show you what he wants you to have or lead you in the right direction. 

Also, I'm not worried about eating turnip greens and hog jowls. Imma just gonna let God take control. 2021

Dear hubby has been spending alot of time hunting and processing meat. He is loving the items I got him for Christmas.  He had made and put up deer breakfast sausage, ground chuck for our beef into one lb meal packages. Now, he is experimenting with Italian sausage. He likes making his own spices and buying his own fat to grind in with it for fat control but not too dry. His grinder gets a good work out.  He is also going to experiment with making Jerky and dehydrating it. I can't wait. Our hunting season will be over in a few days so he wants to go one more time. I however have only got to go one time this whole season. But that's OK. 

We are sticking our meat freezer again. We were getting low on chicken. So we caught it on sale and repackaged it into meal portions and vacuum sealed it. I have alot of these frugal ideas on several of our pages under our header of the blog. Check them out. He likes to make sure we are all good to go for when he goes back to work.

Now that the new year is here and freshness is upon us, I've got to get my house back in order. I didn't do alot of cleaning over the holidays because we were so busy cooking cleaning  and just having fun. But now I want a deep clean. 

I've got the rest of our sweet potatoes to finish putting up. They have been ok in our garden shed curing.  

Then my momma brought me a box of clothes that she needs altered since she has lost alot of weight. So there is that. ❤

Im going to use 2021 and post wisdom thoughts all the time. Well, I do that anyway now, but......

We have become a culture that would rather listen to advice from people that only say what we want to hear or agree with us because it doesn't bother us as bad. Well, the truth is not suppose to taste good as we swallow it. So buckle up buttercups  we're in for a bumpy year. 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

I'll leave you with a funny:

Happy New Year

 We were very busy over the holidays as was everyone probably. I hope everyone got to gather with families. If not, maybe this new year will get us back to some kind of normal. Our surrounding areas have gone back to mask mandates and looks like I want be getting out too much again. 😫 I can't hardly wear them without starting to feel shortness of breath even worse than what I already do. And not to mention, I get a splitting headache from lack of oxygen. If I have to wear one, I take it on and off to catch my breath. 

We had a wonderful Christmas 🎄

It started with the night before Christmas Eve. We let the girls spend the night with us so we could lay out cookies for Santa and read the Christmas story and Bible story. We wanted to let them wake up just like it was Christmas morning but with us. 🤗 So that night we set out cookies for 🎅 and the girls wrote him a note. Then Poppie read the story to them and they wanted dark and flashlights. Then I took them to bed and read them the Bible story. The next morning we got up quietly and then Dakota got here early. They woke up 30 minutes later and we had Santa. They had a ball. I cooked us breakfast while they played.  Dakota and the girls left and we took a long nap and got up and got ready to go to Nannys house.  Dakota and the girls had to leave early because Lolly wanted to bake Christmas cookies with them. 😁 

Christmas morning was our time with Dallas. I don't get alot of pics of ours because I'm opening my gifts too. But I always video them. 

The girls came by again that morning on their ways to mommies house for Christmas and gave me my gifts they made me. I didn't cry this time but may have gotten a little misty eyed.  

We took another much needed nap and then it was to Granny and Poppas (my momma and daddy) house. Everyone didn't get to come. Not due to Covid but because it's been like this the past 3 yrs and that is a whole other story. 

Since the girls were with mommy and didn't get to go with us, I made sure I took them to see Granny and Poppa. 

2020 has stopped us from doing alot of things, but not today Satan. I took the girls to see Granny and Poppa for Christmas and they got to give them their present they made for them. Then we grabbed our Granny and went to the mall where we hooked up with somemore friends and had a great time. We took them to Build A Bear and they loved making their own animals. And we rode the 🎠.  

 

2020 want get the best of me. 

We had a tragedy in our small hometown over Christmas holidays. A former graduate of our kids school was tragically murdered. He graduated two years after our oldest son and they knew each other. He joined the service right after he graduated and served two years. He was stationed in NY and was  pronounced missing. Two days later he was found in NJ. They brought his body back home and our community pulled together and lined the highway that night and saw him home. It was quiet and sombering. I have videos posted on my fb page. I cried watching them. So senseless.  When they had his funeral, there was 5 to 6 officers from the NJ Fire Department and Police Station that came. That day while we were headed to my momma and daddys, we got behind the procession. I will say one thing,  getting beside that hearse and seeing that young boys casket draped with the flag got me bad. I cried again. Bless this poor families heart and his classmates. 

I've seen every one posting about eating certain foods for New Years.  Well, I'm not worried about eating turnip greens and hog jowls. Imma just gonna let God take control. 2021

I hope everyone has a very Happy New Year and blessings. May 2021 bring greater things. Blessings to all. 

Merry Christmas from 4D Farms

 Merry Christmas from our home to yours.  May your days be safe and happy.