February Goals Update

My February goals are in italics, with an update following.

Our church is sponsoring a mission trip to Mexico this summer, and there is a fundraising garage sale planned for later this month. My goal is to find 30 items in our home to donate.

Goal accomplished!! Our family donated approximately 50 items to the garage sale, and I've been told that they all sold.

Over the years, I've collected a few cookbooks in addition to printing off recipes online from various sources. My goal is to weed out several of the cookbooks, as well as organize all the various pieces of loose paper into a nice, tidy, labeled binder.

Goal accomplished!! Several of the cookbooks went to the garage sale. All my loose recipes are now neatly organized. I can actually find a recipe I'm looking for without spending 15 minutes.

On to March!

Paintball! (Wordless Wednesday)

Please join us for Wordless Wednesday.

My Valentine

With Zachary and me on the edge of my parents' frozen pond.

Kayaking with Elizabeth and Zachary in the Gulf of Mexico.

With Ryan and Zachary.

With Elizabeth on a boat ride.

Clowning around with the boys on his birthday.

And with the girls. Guess which university's teams he supports.

Baptizing Ryan.

With Catherine.

With all 4 kids on the campus of his alma mater a couple of years ago.

Enjoying time with his Dad.

Happy Valentine's Day, sweetie!!

Sisters and Brothers (Wordless Wednesday)

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Pinto Beans

Here's my version of pinto beans. I'm serving these for dinner tonight.

1 pound dried pinto beans, washed
8 cups chicken stock
1 tablespoon salt
1/2 tablespoon ground black pepper
1 28 oz. can diced tomatoes
1 large onion, diced
6 cloves garlic, chopped
3 bay leaves
1 1/2 tablespoons dried oregano
1/4 cup chopped jalapeno peppers

Soak beans in a large pot of water overnight.

Drain beans and refill the pot with chicken stock and enough water to cover the beans with 2 inches of liquid. Season with salt and pepper. Cover and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and cook for 1 1/2 hours. Stir as needed to keep beans from sticking.

(Some people don't add the salt until after the beans are cooked, but I think they are better if the salt is added at the beginning.)

Stir the tomatoes, onion, garlic, bay leaves, oregano, and jalapeno peppers into the beans. Continue to cook, uncovered, for about an hour.

These make a very easy main dish for your meal. I serve them with homemade corn bread. Just right for these cold winter nights!

Dead Cattle

Human lives weren't the only casualties from the tornadoes that swept through several southern states on February 5.

You might want to skip this blog entry if the sight of dead animals grosses you out.

One of my sister's and BIL's neighbors is a cattle farmer. He lost about 300 cattle in the tornado that went through their properties.

This cow was lying outside the fence beside the highway. Don't worry, I didn't actually walk up beside it. My mom took this shot out the window from the passenger side of my van. As we were pulled over on the side of the road, I could see a front end loader driving along the shoulder behind us. As we turned around in the van, he scooped up the cow . . .

. . . for deposit in this pile of other dead cows (right in the center of the picture).

The cattle were later buried in one of these holes dug on his property.

Tornado Damage

We spent yesterday with Robin and Tommy (my sister and brother-in-law) as they continued to sort through items scattered by the Tornado that hit their home on Tuesday evening.

This view is of their home as you start up the hill towards it. They live at the end of the road, so if you're driving here you're going to their house. You can see a little bit remaining of one end of their home through the trees. They chose this spot to build their home because of the great view from on top of the hill and the many beautiful surrounding trees.

This is coming a little closer to the front of the house.

This tree snapped right into two pieces.

When they pulled up to their home on Wednesday morning to get their first view of the damage in the daylight, all 4 of their dogs came running to greet them. They were all very glad to see one another! The dogs are staying with a neighbor for now until the upheaval of these first few days is over. (Haven't they got some of the most gracious neighbors in the world?)

This is what the back of their home looks like now. The tornado took out the center of the house and left a little bit standing on each side. Robin and Tommy had some of their clothes still in their closet. My parents took 20 loads to the laundromat on Wednesday and we brought home with us for washing a few quilts, blankets, etc., that we were able to gather from around their property.

Seth wasn't quite so fortunate. The clothes he found are either very high up in trees, or torn/ripped beyond repair.

The remains of Tommy's shop. This is where he kept most of his tools.

The view from their back porch where they saw the tornado approaching (by the light from the lightning). Thank the Lord they saw it coming and had plenty of time to get to their neighbor's basement.

These two wooden dog houses in the center of the picture never moved from their original spots.

Tommy and Papa (my dad) sort through various items. Look at how the tree was split in the right-hand side of the frame.

Clockwise from top left - Robin, Mama (my mom), Catherine, and Elizabeth. Robin needed all the caffeine she could get.

Two electricity trucks and a police officer's vehicle on the road in front of their house. At one time on Thursday, there were 9 electricity trucks lined up on their road. The trucks came from Little Rock, which is about 120 miles away.

Current view from their back porch.

The two Catherines (my Mom and daughter) take a break from their clean-up duties. They actually found a couple of chairs to sit on.

Tommy hopes he'll wake up in the morning and find it's all been a bad dream.

Papa finds something else worth salvaging.