Added Something To The Farm

 So we've been doing a thing. We've added a few things to the farm. 4D Farms Cattle Co. We've got a couple calves thats gonna grow us. Me and the girls can get close to these and maybe put a few bows on their ears. 😄. 

When David was younger, he always talked about having cattle. It was a vision. Time never permitted. Then we have a cowboy who has wanted cattle all his life. He even wanted to ride bulls. 😳 Mom and Dad didn't permit. But as years have gone by, that vision never left and has had a chance to become reality. Thanks to our hard working cowboy and a few little cowgirls, it's coming together. Dakota Dixon put his dreams on hold for a long time and now it is his turn to shine and accomplish his goals. He works all day then comes in and works some more. He's always working. He has excellent work ethics. He gets exhausted but he cowboys up. 🤠 If you have drove by Nannys house, you can see how it's going. We still have a way to go but we will get there. It's finally time. Also,thanks to Micah Gray for cleaning up the pasture. And to Sandee Barton for embroidering our logo on our hats.

Cowgirl Up

 

Shout out to these two girls. NO, the girls with the long hair. 😅😅😅🤣🤣🤣 (that was funny right there). Seriously, to Jordan Ryan and Brylee Barton . They are in the last few weeks of their semesters. They have worked hard and studied hard. They are dreaming and planning their futures. I am also glad our boys are a part of it. Just look at the smiles on their faces. It has been a rough few years for our family in more ways than one. But now, I see those smiles and it does a mothers heart good. These are two very special young ladies. They have to be to put up with our guys. They have also recently had birthdays. They stand beside their men and support them. The guys stand beside their women and support them too. Team Work. I am so blessed that they are part of our team. Team Dixon.

Busy Busy Busy

 Good Sunday Morning to everybody. Boy, this has been a busy few weeks. I started some more projects for my little buddies. I have been working everyday on them. As soon as they are completed, I will show them to you. I don't want to spoil it. If you sew, you know by looking what they might be. Then Hobby Lobby is going to break my budget. LOL. I can see some hair bows in my future too. I have been watching some videos of hair bow making and let me say, they are going to have a bunch. Hobby Lobby was running a sale on ribbons, trims and tulles and I picked up some. That is where I got the unicorn and rainbow ribbon. Believe it or not, the smaller ones came from the Dollar Tree. I have notions already to complete the bows. I also have scraps of material to make them some hair scrunchies. 

Our kitchen is a mess but coming together. The cabinets were delivered and we had to inspect them before we brought them into the house, The delivery guys didn't like that too much but you know what? I know orders can get messed up and things can get broken and we were not going to let them "dump and go" in case something was wrong. So they had to watch. 

Right now they are just placed in the kitchen, not set. We need to shift around and such. We were just so tired for the day we just stopped. 

We have been picking out counter tops and boy, there has been so much to choose from it is hard to make up our minds. We have changed our minds three times already. Just as we have light fixtures and such. lol. 

Our new door is in. We will be changing the handles and locks because we didn't like the way it turned out. We have someone coming to fix up the outside just a little. Further down on our project list is an extended, covered, front porch. One project at a time. The camera doesn't do it justice. 

Our flooring came together great. Like I said, the camera doesn't do it justice. I will try to get better pics some day. The sun has alot to do with the view. 

We finally received some mail from Dallas. He is getting all of our mail thank goodness. He is having a blast but getting so exhausted. This week he will be going through the Anvil and will be testing on everything. Then the next week is the Forge. It is the hardest. These are some pics the Facebook Group posted for us parents. It is still so hard to tell who is who unless you get a good face profile. Alot of these are his buddies. These are just to show you what all he has done. He is in very good spirits. We only have two and a half weeks left until we get to see him. 

I have some new videos up on our channel, be sure to go check them out. 

Keeper of the Home at 4D Farms

Well, I have my projects to get back to and try to finish. It is Sunday and be sure to count your blessings today because we sure do not deserve anything he has given us. God has blessings for us, but we better be sure we live like we deserve them or earned them. I hope everyone has a blessed day in the Lord. 

Hobby Lobby Made Me Do It

 Hobby Lobby is so close to us that I find myself going there at least once a week. But I am enjoying my Hobby to the fullest. I have been busy and having so much fun sewing as you can see. I made the girls some matching shirts. Instead of buttons, I used snaps on these. Caroline has trouble with buttons and tries to pull the garment opening apart so....the reason for snaps. She can pull these apart but might have help snapping them closed. She will learn. I took the plunge and used the embroidery part of my sewing machine and embroidered a different color heart on each shirt. I don't know why it has taken me 5 yrs to get over my intimidation of this machine but I did and I see more embroidery in my future. LOL. Next, I just need to learn more about transferring designs from my computer to my machine. My machine is a small scale one, 4x4 size embroidery and I'm perfectly fine with  that. 

I made me some items and I love how they turned out. I purchased some Pioneer Woman place mats a while ago and got busy at home and put them up for a while. Well, I brought them with me and made these and they serve my traveling needs perfectly. I will be making more projects with her placemats too. 

I found some material for Dallas. It was on sale 30% off so I said, Why Not! I don't know what I'll make yet. Probably some throw pillows for his bed. 

I have a few more projects I'm fixing to work on too. I'll let you see when they are done. 

I have enjoyed my using my instant pot and air fryer. I have made some pretty good meals in them. I always make a big batch of egg bites for dear hubby to take to work with him. I make about a weeks worth and wrap them. He takes them to work and puts them in the fridge in his office. He can grab and go at work. Makes me feel nice that he has something homemade to eat at work. I also made some for some of the staff and they loved them. They told me I was going to have to make some more. LOL. I think I will make them a sweet treat next.

I made some enchiladas one night and a pasta dish the next. It is easy to make pasta dishes in the instant pot. 

Last night I made a quick meal of fish tacos and a southwest cole slaw. 

One day the weather got so bad, I was actually getting a little worried. I had to run errands that morning to pick up a few groceries and I got back in time. I did not like the look of the clouds and the Noah weather broke in on the radio. I turned on the local news here and saw that we were under severe thunderstorm and a tornado warning. About 10 minutes later a tornado was in rotation 9 miles from us. Me and dear hubby were worried about each other. He told me exactly what to do and where to go if I had to. I started calling my parents and Dakota back home. It would eventually head that way too. After a while the watches and warnings ended, but it thunder stormed the rest of the day. I was looking out the window at one time and literally saw a lightning bolt touch down across the bridge on the interstate. I heard a loud pop. I don't know what it hit, but it didn't sound good. It finally calmed down after the evening. It was over before dear hubby got off work. I'm glad because I prayed him all the way home. 

We had a rough weekend last weekend. They placed a traveling football team on our floor and some scattered on other floors. It was not pleasant to say the least. They literally were up all hrs of the night, going from room to room, elevator and stair wells. Not to mention, loud noise, music, etc. That first night was awful for our friend across the hall because finally around 1 am they went to one room that adjoins his and decided to party there the rest of the night. He got no sleep at all and we all had to be up at 4 am. 

  The next night, we went  to bed around 10 pm, these kids decided they wanted to play football in the hall way. We had enough. Dear hubby jumps out of bed, calls downstairs, however, it was a young girl on night shift and I told him it was unsafe for her to come up here with all these young guys. It was too dangerous. So, she played a good call. She called the coaches room  and told him to come quieten everyone down. Dear hubby went out in the hall and was waiting on the coach to come. He was asking the boys nicely to hold the noise down since we all had to get up again around 4 am. A woman was sitting in the hall way eating cheetos and watching everything. She said she was a parent and chaperone. Are you kidding me? You're supervising these kids making all this chaos and noise at 10 pm at night with no regards to other tenants trying to sleep. Finally the coach appears much much later. They finally get settled in a room somewhere a few hrs later. I got up in the middle of the night and they were still awake and I could hear them. Again at 4 am, still awake. They finally went to bed around 6am. Well, guess what? Coach had to start waking them up around 9 am to check out. HAHAHAHAHAHA. That's what they get. We were so tired and sleepy and throw miserable in there. I prayed and prayed they were leaving. I looked out the hall one time and a young mother and her two very young children were checking out. Made me wonder what kind of night she had because the was closer to their rooms than we were and if we could hear them all the way to ours up the hall, I know she was miserable too. They all left and it was so quiet. Finally, we could sleep. I felt so sorry for house keep though. It took them 8 hrs to clean just this floor and all their rooms. Management was so upset. 

Folks, please learn, know and understand hotel  and motel etiquette. There are quiet hours. People come in from all different places, and for all different reasons. Mostly, to REST and SLEEP. Also, if you wouldn't make that big of a mess in your own home, don't do it else where. Just because that's what "they get paid to do" doesn't mean you have to act like you had no raising and be disrespectful. CLEAN YOUR CRAP UP.  Ok, I'm off my soap box. I  will just say, I can see an RV in our future.  Home away from home and we can have our own space and peace and quiet. 

I have started a new book. I absolutely love Sharon White. She is very traditional in homemaking, homekeeping, marriage and parenting. I plan to get more of her books. 

We had some items delivered at home for the girls. Dakota went and picked them up and Jordan wrapped them for us. To say they were excited is an understatement. Poppie sure does know how to make two little princesses happy. 

Not much longer and we get to hug and kiss and squeeze the tater out of them. And we get to see how our kitchen is coming along. So far so good. 

Well, I have laundry to do, so I'm off. Have a blessed day. 

All Things Wonderful

 I left you last by telling you that our little Caroline was going to have tubes put in her ears and her adenoids taken out. The morning came of her surgery and you can plainly see that she was not happy about it. Later, they had to start giving her the "happy" medicine. She was being so goofy. Afterwards, on the way home, mommy let me facetime her and she was so groggy and talking off the wall. She was going to go get ice cream. 

Lolly, her other grandmother finally got around to trimming her hair. She looks so grown up. She had to take off quite a bit due to sissy cutting her hair. 

They are having so much fun with their Uncle Finn and Lolly. 

I am still playing around with the air fryer and instant pot. Bruscetta tastes really good in the air fryer. I did purchase a whole rotisserie chicken from Kroger and paired it with some fresh cut up vegetables that I sauteed in the instant pot. It turned out delicious. 

I am so excited. I have had this sewing embroidery combination machine for 5 years and have been so intimidated to even learn the embroidery part. I don't know why. So, I contacted a lady at a quilting shop and she offers private classes. So.......She worked with me for 4 hrs and taught me how to use my machine and features. I still need to learn how the computer part of it works. I've got to learn how to transfer images to the machine from computer. We played around a little and I honestly don't know why I was so scared. Then, on the way back, I found another sewing shop and  she offers private classes too. I have a serger that is 25 years old and have never used all the features on it. Well, I have set up another private class and she will teach me how to use all the features on it and come up with cool projects. I don't know why it has taken me all these years to do this. I've missed out on alot of things that I could have been doing. Oh well, looks like I'm fixing to catch up. 

Our kitchen is coming along. Everything is stripped out. Paint is going on the walls and flooring is being put down. There are more pics but they are on dear hubbys phone so I need to get him to send them to my phone so I can post them next time. 

I might get into trouble, but I can't stand it any longer.  I just have to share a few photos with ya'll. He finally got to call home. He chose to call Brylee, (his girl) but that is just fine with me. Not even upset or envious. We are all just glad to hear from him and know that he is ok and doing well. He is having fun actually. This is all right up his alley and what he enjoys doing anyway. The mail situation is not so good. He has only received one letter and it is from dad. We have all wrote at least 3 letters a piece and he has only gotten one. ONE!!!!! We haven't gotten any letters from him as of yet. There are so many parents in the support group that are upset just as much as  we are. At least we know he is ok and doing better than we were thinking. I can rest more easy now. It is getting about time for us to book or reservations for hotel for graduation. I cannot wait to see him and hear all his stories. 

I have uploaded one or two new videos since I have last posted. 

Hotel Cooking and Travel Hacks

Hope you enjoy it.

We Are Making Do

 We are making do here in our hotel. We only have a few weeks left. Then we are homeward bound for a few days. Our kitchen is all gutted out and I keep trying to get someone to get me some pics, but everyone keeps forgetting. I would love to see the progress instead of just hear it everyday. 

I have a few hacks I'd like to share with ya'll. First is how to get more space out of your packing. I have learned how to pack things to create more space and how to plan outfits and fold them properly. In the first pic, I picked out a pair of pants and found multiple shirts to go with them. One pair of pants, 3 shirts, in one bundle. Lay the pants down first, fold each shirt longways in half and lay on top of the pants. Then start at the bottom of the pant leg and roll up into a log. Viola! You can put several bundles into your suitcase this way. Or you can fold an outfit up for everyday this way. Sometimes I roll a pair of pants, the shirt, underwear, bra and socks (if any for that outfit) all in the bundles. Or there is another way.

Packing Cubes. These things are amazing. You can put your bundles or several into one packing cube or you can put like items into one packing cube. I have done both. In one, I have my pj sets. In another I have all my socks. In another, underwear and bras. 

Here is an example of how much these things hold. I have two long sleeve shirts and 7 tshirts in this one cube. The cubes are designed to compress the clothes and make them tight into the cube. This creates more space. I could have packed a pair of jeans and shirt bundle and put them into the cube, but I have so many jeans that these shirts will go with so I just did them this way. 

This is how I fold my jeans and jeggings or leggings if I am not rolling them with a shirt into a bundle. I could put all my blue jeans into a packing cube, but I didn't have one  that size. These things come in all sizes. When they are all packed, you know what is in each one and when you need something, you just grab the cube and put it back instead of shuffling through loose clothes and messing up your suitcase. These keep everything in your suitcase organized. I love them. 

Next, is making the most space in your little refrigerator in your room. I can only shop  for groceries for about two meals at at time. There is a little freezer at the top which I keep a little bag of ice to keep me from going down to the ice machine so much and it all melting before it gets used. Yes, that is alot of jello. When I had Covid, Dallas has bought me a bunch and we put them into the fridge. But when it was time for me to go and I had to clean out the fridge, I brought it with me instead of wasting it. So, at night, if I get a little snacky, I grab one. You have to shop small not just in quantity but size as well. I try to find the smallest size of something I can find. 

This is our little snack drawer and place to hold some non-refrigerator items. 

I have had to learn to get creative with cooking. I watch some videos on air fryer meals and instant pot meals. It is a learning process. I'm getting there. Dear hubby does not say a word, he understands that I have never just relied on these two appliances to make our meals. He's very patient. I would like to add that not all hotels will let you have a set up like this. Some hotels want let you bring appliances in. You will have to check with management. I talked to the manager of the hotel and she gave me her permission since we are a long stay for a while. She is really nice. All the staff are. Of course, Dear hubby has been coming here for three years, so they know him. There is a washer and dryer too downstairs and I can wash a little load at a time, but sometimes I want out, so I will take the laundry to a laundry mat and it doesn't take long at all. They have extra large capacity washers and dryers. You can wash two regular loads just about versus one at home at a time. Housekeeping knows I clean our room, so the only thing they have to do is give us fresh towels and trash bags everyday. 

I took some scraps from the girls ponchos and made them some matching little drawstring bags for play. 

Then it was time for me to make me a little something. 

I'm working on putting up some more videos on YouTube on our channel at Keeper of the Home at 4D Farms. 

We still haven't gotten any letters from Dallas yet, but I guess no news is good news. It's the not knowing that is killing me. I know the first 2 to 3 weeks of Basic is extremely busy and intense, so I also know he is not getting any free time and I know he's probably exhausted. This week they have a 5 mile march to complete. 

 Well, it is time for me to go and find something to do. I try to stay busy doing the same things I would do if I was at home. It helps the time go by faster so we can get back and see our girls. Everyone is saying that me and Poppie is all the girls are talking about. Atleigh has been telling mommy that she want Gmaw. She is missing me. We found out that Caroline has to have tubes put in her ears and her adnoids taken out. She is beginning to have the same issues as Atleigh did as a baby. Atleigh had to do the same thing when she was 2 yrs I think. Not long ago, one of her tubes fell out in my hand when I was carefully cleaning her ears. They are designed to fall out after they have corrected the ear canal. It still freaked me out. Caroline will have surgery next Monday. 

 

Making the Most of My Time

A few posts ago, I showed ya'll the ponchos I was making for the granddaughters. Well, I have been putting my time to use and I got another set made. This is my set. I brought plenty of projects out here to do to keep me busy. I'm going to make some things and then I have some hemming and projects to do. I'll keep you updated and show you. This sure does help pass the time on rainy days, and I don't feel like going out any where. Also, it saves me money. Every time I go out to run errands, I wind up seeing things I want and then I buy them. I bought a little wrist wallet and a blouse the other day. This is not going to help our kitchen renovation budget that's for sure. So, it's better for me to just stay busy. 😂

I wanted to be up front and honest with the hotel manager and let her know I had an air fryer and  instant pot in the room. She doesn't have a problem with it. As long as I don't leave the room while they are on and running. I feel so much better knowing I have her permission. I made dear hubbys favorite. Sloppy Joe pies. I use Pillsbury Flaky Layer biscuits (again, his favorite). The instant pot is great for using like a frying pan on the saute' mode. Then I popped them into the air fryer. 

 

This morning I made a grilled cheese in the air fryer. 

Dallas, Company has a few Facebook group pages that we follow and they post pictures frequently. We have been able to spot him in a few pictures and I get so excited to see him. However, I can't post any on any social media or blog platform right now due to security reasons. Just know it makes this mommas heart glad. We have been sending him letters frequently. I know he is so busy and so tired sometimes, so I'm not worried or upset if it takes him a while to write back. 

I put up two new videos on my YouTube channel. One is making my homemade cinnamon rolls:How I Make My Homemade Cinnamon Rolls

and Planning Your Garden

Well, it is another rainy day here, and we have been getting tons of rain back home. It has rained for 4 days on and off with a few thunderstorms on and off. I guess God is getting the ground ready for people to start putting in those gardens. I cannot wait until March 13th when the time changes. 

Looks like it's a messy bun, comfy pant wearing kind of day. 

Recovering and Hotel Living

 Boy, I am slowly recovering from Covid. I can have good days and bad days. It's the recovering that takes the longest I think. I am so thankful that some people can have it and have light symptoms and can recover quickly. As soon as I got the all clear from the dr that I was not contagious anymore, I got to see my little buddies. I went down to Dakotas house and he cooked for me and Brylee and I got to read some bedtime stories, pray with my little buddies and tuck them into bed. It was a good night. 

With Dallas gone to Basic Training, Brylee came to help me clean Dallas room and help pack up some things he wanted packed up. Well, really, I paid her. I knew she was missing him already and needed to get her mind off things but at the same time be close to him. This was the perfect solution. I was in her shoes at one time when Dear hubby went off to USMC Boot Camp. There was no way I was going to let her do this for free.  His room was a mess. This gave me some time to spend with her too. I took her out to eat one night and I had a chance to give her some advice from one military girlfriend (then) to another. She stayed with me for a few days. It was really nice to hear her talk of their plans. Reminded me of me and dear hubby when we were this exact same age with our whole lives ahead of us. It was refreshing.

Dear hubby had to already leave to the next job. So, as Dallas was not at home, and I'm still recovering, hubby is getting worried about me. Also, we are suppose to be having kitchen renovation done. So, now is the perfect time. So, as I am trying to recover, I slowly started packing up our kitchen. Brylee also helped me with this. Some days were better than others. Some days I had energy, but used it so quick and got alot done, then some days minimal energy and got bare minimum done.  I am not a procrastinator. If I know I've got something to do, I put my nose to the grindstone and get it done. I guess, just because I still felt so fatigued some day, I just dreaded it and became a procrastinator. Finally, the day came that I got it all done. Then the next day, I started packing all my things. The next day, I was time for me to leave. I fought fatigue the whole way there. Dear hubby was so worried about me the whole time. I finally made it to where he was. 

These pics show the set up in our room. Why, yes that is a sewing nook. Since we are going to be here for a while, I have got to have something to do. My serger and sewing machine have their own carrying cases and they travel nicely. The clear tub consists of book and my Bible to read. The black tub underneath the table is my project box. It is sewing projects I am going to get completed and some patterns I am going to retrace adnd make some projects. 

Dear hubby always takes his own linens everywhere. No need to explain why there. We even bring our own mattress topper just like the one we have at home because it is  pain t sleep on different mattresses all the time. No pun intended. It will mess your back up in a heartbeat. Our own pillows too. 

This little sink comes in handy when I need to wash some small dishes and the tub will wash all our bigger stuff like our instant pot liner. I even bought some cleaner and a spray bottle too. I don't like them cleaning when I am in the room. I like cleaning our own room like I clean my house  so  I know its clean. That' just me. 

This is our coffee station, dining area, and computer area. 

I put up another table to extend our kitchen area. I brought an instant pot and an air fryer. We have a refrigerator and a microwave. Under the table is a tub with all our essentials. Next week, I will start meal planning and cooking our suppers. This week , dear hubby just wanted me to recooperate and he picks us up whatever we want to eat when he gets off work. 

This is our new farm caps that Brylees mom made for us. Next is some shirts. 

I have joined a few Facebook groups of Dallas company in hopes of catching a few glimpses of him in pics or gathering info. We have sent a few letters already but he is so busy that he hasn't had a chance to write us. It's ok with me because he has waited for this all his life. On an app we have to use for mailing, they have weekly updates.  This week has been Army History, Code Of Conduct,  Rules and Regulations. Then they moved on to Basic Medic Skills and Basic Combat Training. This is right up his alley because all his martial arts training will come back to him and this will be his favorite part. lol 

All this mom can do is pray every day. 

Dear hubby is fixing to get off work and bring our dinner. So it is my time to give him all my attention. lol.