Thrifty Thursday

"The Age of Asparagus"       I love asparagus. Love, Love it. When I was a child, each spring we would all pile in the car and head out "asparagus hunting". We would go out in the country and search the ditch banks for wild asparagus. We would come home with bags of it. What wonderful memories. It was not unusual to be going out to our grandparents and all of a sudden dad would bring the car to an abrupt stop and we would know to jump out of the car and go pick the asparagus. We can't find it like we used to, I think it is still out there, but there are more people on this old earth and they beat us to the wild stuff. I decided several years ago that I would start planting it in my garden so I could have it for free in the years to come, it is so expensive at the store. It takes about 4 years for asparagus to come of age, if you will, and I just got my first picking this week. I know, it isn't much, but it was about a cup full when I chopped it into 1 inch pieces and boiled it. It was sooo good. Several years ago, my sister, Barbara got this cute Asparagus set for me at a thrift store. I love it. It is a little bowl with a lid to serve your asparagus in and a butter dish. The bottom of the dish says "Lorries Design" and a little Japan sticker. I am for sure using it this year when the rest of my asparagus "Comes of Age".

Whatever Wednesday!

Happy Wednesday. It is windy, cold and spots of snow and rain today, but I am still happy. I refuse to let the wind get me down even though I don't like it very well. My Grandma Howard always said, "don't complain about the wind, it is just blowing in better weather". I hope she was right. I love working out in my yard this time of year. Tonight is a bridal shower for our sweet neighbor, Whitney. I am posting what I made for her. I think it turned out so cute. I saw something similar to this in a store for a huge amount of money and thought, hey, I can make that. The big H costed $2.99, the small o, m and e costed $1.99 each and the paper was $.99 each, I used one and one half sheets, so that equals just over $11.00. I love how it turned out.

Make-It Monday, Table-Top Tuesday and a little rambling

Okay, I finally got my new hard drive to work and I think I have salvaged most of our pictures from the last several occations and years. So I am a happy camper. I am going to show my make-it Monday, because I was to busy yesterday to put it on. Michelle's birthday was on Easter this year and she wanted to have a fish cake. Mind you, I am not a cake decorator, so this is what she got. I hope you can tell it is a fish.
Now, for Table-Top Tuesday, this is a table I have in my front hall. I bought the table several years ago from my neighbor for $10. I love the table and it is fun to decorate. I can do holidays and seasons or what ever I want. The little pictures on the top and bottom selves are some that Doug gave me for my birthday several years ago and they are some of my favorite.
Now for the rambling. Thirty years ago today I gave birth to my first child, Brian. He was 6 lbs. 13 ounces and was so scary to me. After I had him after 36 hours of labor, they took him and got me and him cleaned up and then they brought him to me. They had him in one of the stretchy, thermal baby blankets that they had wrapped around him and he was so tiny and all I could see of him was this tiny head the size of a large orange. We soon got brave and unwrapped him and counted his toes and fingers. Now he is a grow-up husband and dad and I am so proud of him. He just left today for a 3 week business to Singapore and Miliasia. That is scary to me as his mom, I still think of him as that tiny bundle brought to me 30 years ago.
They grow up so fast.

More Diligent and Concerned at Home

I just got done reading our Relief Society lesson for today from the November Ensign 2009. It is by Elder David A. Bednar titled "More Diligent and Concerned at Home". I love the talk, but it really got me thinking about when my 5 children were home and we were trying to run a smooth but busy household and teach the children well. He talks about when they would try to have family prayer, scripture study and family home evening with their 5 boys and they felt like failures at times. I know that feeling well. But Elder Bednar said if you ask his boys what they remember about the events it wouldn't be a particular event or scripture or activity, it would be that as a family they were consistent. We tried so hard to be consistent, that is good. We have to try our best. This scripture was in the talk and it is one of my favorites: "Wherefore, be not weary in well-doing, for ye are laying the foundation of a great work. And out of small things proceedeth that which is great" (Doctrine and Covenants 64:33). I hope my children, now that they are starting families of their own will remember that scripture. It has been a constant for me.

Happy Earth Day!

Happy Earth Day! I have been meaning to plant my seeds for my garden for the past few weeks and I finally got it done on Earth Day, no less. I feel so much better now that I have them done. Now I just hope they germinate. I am still dealing with not being able to download pictures, so next week we will try again with the theme days.

I AM BACK

Well, my external hard drive died. I have lost tons of pictures. I have learned a huge lesson from this. Back-up. I just need someone to teach me how to do that. I am sad about my pictures but I can't sit and whine over it. Monday, I will be doing my weekly posts, I hope. Until then, I am going to enjoy the rest of my Saturday. We had a mini super Saturday this morning. It was great, but I was pooped afterward. Now we are off to celebrate our son-in-law, Ricky's birthday. Until Monday, good day...

Time

I still can't get my pictures to down load. I will try to have it fixed by next week. 

I found this poem that I wanted to share. 

Time

If I had time to find a place

And sit down, quietly and face

My better self, which cannot show

Because my days are crowded so;

And see my distant gleaming goal,

It might be I should find my soul

And even thrill with thought sublime,

If I could only find the time.

-Author Unknown

Make-It Monday

I can't get my computer to down load pictures so I can't do the Make-it Monday. I will try later.

Fun Friday

For my themed days, I chose Fun Friday for Friday's. Doug always has that day off and so we spend the whole day together since we don't get a lot of time during the week. Yesterday we had a wonderful lunch at one of our favorite restaurants, the Firehouse Grill. Then, since today is filled with a funeral, General Conference and getting ready for Easter, we had a lot of running around to do. When we got home, Valerie, Joe and Jacob came over for awahile. Sydney called since it was her spring break and wanted to come play, so she and Payton came over for a while and we played board games and put puzzles together. It was a very fun day.

One More Lamb

In my earlier post about Lambs I forgot a very important picture that I have in my kitchen. I love this picture. It is so calming to me. It is called the Shepherdess. Enjoy!

Thrifty Thursday

I was trying so hard this week to post a fun thing everyday. One of these weeks I will be able to make it. My name for Wednesday will be "Whatever Wednesday". But I just didn't get it done yesterday. I have decided to make Thursdays "Thrifty Thursdays". I love thrift store finds, I love free old treasures, and I love to try to be thrifty in my lifestyle, so who know what might come up on Thursdays. Today, I want to show a few finds I have found recently that pertain to Easter. I am really in love with Lambs this year. Usually I think of Bunnies for Easter, but for some reason it is Lambs. I like to think that is the Lamb of God that we are thinking and worshiping about at this time of year.
The vintage postcards above I found on some wonderful blogs. I love that I keep finding Lambs. The following are things I have come across. 

The first picture is of a cute tray with Lambs on it that I got a few months ago at Real Deals for $1. Maybe that is what got me thinking of Lambs. The little green tea pot next to it, I found at a thrift store for $1.75. I thought it would be so cute with the tray. The next picture shows another pitcher that is the same color green that I have had for several years. My step-father gave it to me. I know it is quite old. I love how the colors go together so well. The next one is so fun. Doug took me to an antique store a few weeks ago. I had gotten almost through the whole store without finding anything, then I spotted the two Lambs. The small one was on sale for $1.50 and the larger one was $4.  I love them both. The larger has an opening on its back that was probably for flowers, but I found these cute chocolate Lambs that I thought were perfect for him to carry.
The doll was my very first doll. I have kept it all these years. I was showing it to my granddaughters, Payton and Sydney today and realized it too had a Lamb on it. I could never quite understand why the leash had baa on it backwards but I still love her. Last but not least, is a picture of me when I was one year old. If you look closely you will see a Lamb on my outfit. How cute. I hope you all enjoy my display of Lambs.
I saw a very interesting thing on an e-mail that I received this week. The lady said to put a picture of yourself when you were little somewhere where you can see it often to remind yourself of who you are taking care of. It is so easy to put your family first and neglect yourself. This way, maybe you can remember to put you on a more equal footing. I am putting this little picture of me by my kitchen sink so I can remember there is a little person in there that needs some attention.