I am still having fun watching the cast iron sales on eBay. I figure the economy can't be too bad when someone is willing to pay $3927.78 for a child's toy! Yep, you can see the auction page here, then go call Grandma to see if she has a set up in her attic!
Each week there are several auctions for these "rare" cast iron bundt pans. This one sold for $529.99, which is a hundred more than usual. You can see the auction page here.

One last auction for you...this pan sold for $1,028. I still can't figure out what is so unusual about this pan. Here's the auction. I only know that there are many cast iron fan clubs whose members are crazy about their collections. Anyway, I enjoy seeing all the myriads of cast iron. But I am harmless since I wouldn't pay these prices even if I could afford them.

This past Saturday we went to the Farmer's Market in Charlotte Hall. I saw this sticker on a car and thought it was funny.

These oranges are yummy. I felt thrilled to pay $30 for a bushel of seedless naval oranges, a basket of onions, and a flat of strawberries.

A flat of strawberries has 16 of these 1 lb containers. Most of the strawberries were red and juicy but have been eaten. I forgot to take a picture until this morning. We will probably blend these strawberries along with some oranges and a banana. I don't know though...it's 63 in my home this morning. The evening temps have been in the 40s lately.

Speaking of temps...I know my friend, Joan, in Wyoming, is laughing at our measely 40 degree temps! But Joan sent me her latest game that exercises the brain. Go here to try the Apple Game. I can regularly get 85 or better now. Let me know how you do.

Sarah has taken up crocheting lately. Every time we see her now she has yarn with her. She has all of us scrambling for Michaels' coupons or yarn sales. She's made 2 afghans, a cell phone holder and this adorable teapot cozy. She rarely uses patterns. Sarah has also been trying felting. Anyone else into felting? Do you have any tips?
Sarah had some leftover yarn, so in a few minutes she whipped up a cute little top for my teapot. She sure is having fun.
A little while ago, I bought this Teen Bible in the thrift shop for 10 cents. I was curious about it but didn't have the time to look through it in the store. For some reason the cover offends me. I don't like the part of our culture that makes everything teen related to be "radical" or "extreme." I have children who are "traditional," and I like that. Yes, they love the Lord, but I wouldn't use the first terms to describe them.
Anyhow, this Bible is the NKJV, and is published by Thomas Nelson Publishers. I have to admit, I really like it. I enjoy all the little commentary info that is abundant on every page. I think I would have enjoyed Bible reading more if I had had this as a teen.

My Dad made it home from Texas yesterday. He paid $2.39 a gallon for gas in Corpus Christi. Our lowest price here is $2.65.

Maggie and Mike are up at Walter Reed for her final appointments before going to Johns Hopkins. We appreciate your prayers. She is in constant pain again.

Today I read Micah 7:18 and 19. " Who is a God unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity?...He retaineth not his anger forever, because he delighteth in mercy. ...He will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea."

Isn't our God great? Not only does he forgive us our sins, but he forgets them. One of my favorite songs by the Old Fashion Revival Quartet says, "...in the sea of God's forgetfulness that's good enough for me, praise God, my sins are gone.!"

We're off to violin lessons. Many blessings ~ Kathie

This has been another busy week. We finally took the time on Thursday to go to Hog Point after we got our allergy shots. Even Sarah came with us, which is a rarity. If you look on the bridge, you can see Maggie.

We had lots of fun skipping rocks. Children have probably been skipping rocks for 200 years but it is still fun.

We always see wildlife at Hog Point. Today we saw this beautiful swan. Her babies (cygnets) are tucked under her wings.
As we were leaving, we watched this jet taxi in front of us. We still get such awe from seeing these huge machines.
Tonight, Mike and I had a Navy party to go to. We rarely go to Navy functions anymore, so this was a fun evening for us. This picture shows Solomons Island as we are going over the Patuxent River bridge into Calvert County.

Our friend, Johnny O, hosted the event here at his home. His home is as beautiful inside as outside.

The main feature of this event is Johnny O's new pizza oven. Johnny bought 50 dough balls from Nicks of Prince Frederick. Several guys (including hubby Mike) took turns making pizza.

The pizzas were made nonstop from the time we arrived until right before we left. This is the assembly table. Toppings included fresh mozzarella, parmesan, fresh basil leaves, anchovies, greek olives, carmelized onions, assorted peppers, pepperoni, roasted peppers, pesto, pineapple, ham, and fresh mushrooms. The smells were wonderful!

There is a fire to the left of the oven that kept burning all night. From time to time Johnny would add a small log. He had an infrared thermometer that he would point at the fire. The temps ranged from 815 to 919. Hot!

Every once in a while, some cheese would burn onto the stove, so Johnny would push some embers onto it and let it burn for a minute. Then it would scrape off easily.

It was a drizzly evening, but no one seemed to mind. A bunch of us had fun talking under the large umbrella. Johnny also had some sort of heater thing that kept us warm. (Temps were in the 60s.) I got to meet a like-minded couple, so the time flew as we talked. (Turns out that my Mom teaches piano to their daughter.)

So we had a nice ending to a busy week. We came home to find our children playing Monopoly. We are very thankful for the little bit of rain/drizzle that we got today. Our weather has been dry for several weeks.

Dad is on his way home from Texas, so I will try to call him tonight to keep him awake for a few minutes.

Enjoy your weekend. Many blessings ~ Kathie

This is a stick bug that we found in the garage yesterday! We had fun watching him. Later on I googled stick bugs and learned a lot about them. Now I wish we would've caught him to keep as a pet. They are easy to keep.

Here's poor Ollie. He got his first Heartworm treatment this week. Now we have to keep him motionless for a month. Yikes! I'm not sure who is hurting more...him or us!

Bonnie and Owen came up with the winning caption for my duck picture yesterday. "Slam Duck!" My family loved it. Thanks, Bonnie. My children told me they had to help this slam dunk up out of the basket with a broom. I'm sure that was funny in itself.

This morning Lizzie made pancakes. I had forgotten to set my sourdough batter last night, so she made regular pancakes. I went to my favorite online recipe search, www.recipesource.com and was surprised to find recipes for many exotic pancakes, but very few for typical pancakes. Here are some recipes that caught my eye:

1 ~ Shrimp with cornmeal pancakes

2 ~ North-South onion pancakes

3 ~ Red Pepper coriander pancakes with guacamole

4 ~ Vegetable Rye pancakes

5 ~ Mulligan's Boxty pancakes

A total of 533 pancake recipes came up. Of course, there were many recipes for blueberry, potato, buckwheat, and corn pancakes, too.

Matthew 5:9 "Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God."

This weekend our church is having revival services with evangelist Byron Foxx from Bible Truth Music. Last night he preached on this Bible verse and challenged us to be peacemakers. He certainly gave us a lot to meditate on today. I'm looking forward to returning tonight.

We quilters call ourselves piecemakers, so I have been thinking about the similarities between a piecemaker and a peacemaker. Last night we had half of our congregation in attendance and we raised the roof with our singing voices. It was wonderful.

Enjoy your weekend. Many blessings ~ Kathie

We tried to think of a witty caption for this picture but our ideas were corny. Can you think of one? I'd love to hear it. I never tire of watching our muscovy ducks.

Yesterday we had a nice trip to Dad's farm. This farm is just for investment purposes. It is 24 acres off Medley's Neck Road in Leonardtown.

These first two pictures show one of the two pastures, and two of the four outbuildings.

This gazebo overlooks the pasture.

There are three houses that all look like this first one. No, they aren't farmhouses...just plain ranchstyle houses.

One of my brothers' recent projects was to turn this barn into a small apartment.

This is the front with the entrance. Not much to look at but we loved the inside! Lots of funny nooks and crannies.

The kitchen is all white. I could probably vacuum this whole apartment without needing to change outlets!

The entire upstairs makes up the one bedroom, but there is a nice open room at the top of the stairs. Downstairs is the living room, kitchen and bath. Isn't it cute?

Outside is a little shed with a porch.
We collected lots of acorns for Maggie so she can make flour. Yummy!

I had to laugh when we drove up to my brothers' work site. They nailed an electrical outlet to the tree so they could blast their radio. Glad there are no neighbors nearby.

Simba is up on top of the first story (this will eventually be a 2 story home). My brother, Mike, and his son, Dustin, are out back with James, the only non-family worker. Floyd was working on a home on Cobb Island. It was a beautiful day to be out working.
I took this picture of the door on Simba's truck. Anyone interested in renting a cute little barn apartment? That's the phone number. (The pasture and large barn are also up for rent.)

This is the fourth little building we call a "barn."

This is what I call a barn! Isn't it beautiful? This belongs to the neighbor who shares the road to the farm. You can almost smell the freshness of the wood on this barn. Oh how I enjoy the country life!

Today I took Maggie to Physical Therapy down on base. The PT room is located inside the huge gym that houses the indoor pool and the large gym. While I was in the car waiting for Maggie, a firetruck and ambulance rode up and blocked me in. Then I realized a bunch of people were coming out of the building quickly...some in swimming suits. They were evacuating the building!

I ran into the PT room, and they were all completely unaware of the massive evacuation going on! The doctor unhooked Maggie from her machine and we all headed for the door. I still don't know what the problem was, but the firemen all had little machines so I'm guessing there was suspicion of a gas leak. That was enough drama for my day!

My sister in law came over to visit today. Denise just found out today that she is very allergic to milk and chocolate. Poor darling. She has no idea how to live now. Maggie and I took her to the very beginning...first start by taking milk out of your diet:~)

Many blessings ~ Kathie

What a busy weekend. The play went well, much better than I thought it would. But then again...I say that every year! I tried to find some pictures but it looks like none of my children have downloaded their cameras yet. I took three pictures at rehearsal. This is Anna getting ready to sing her song, "I Wanna Go Home." We both enjoyed that song!

The girls sang three songs together, Anna sang 6 songs, Maggie sang 5 songs, and Sarah the finale. Those voice lessons are paying off!

Allen and Anna sang a duet. My only two blue-eyed children.

Speaking of lessons...this is Anna at voice lessons. Audrey is the absolute best voice teacher we know. What a blessing to have this opportunity! Now it's Maggie and Sarah's turn. Mike and I were able to notice the difference in voice quality after only a couple lessons. Learning to breathe is so crucial.

We had a little fun while putting away laundry the other night. Allen put on Maggie's culottes, and Maggie put on Allen's jeans. (Hard to believe but Maggie has culottes on under Allen's pants!) Goofy children.

Ruthie came downstairs this morning all ready to ride the range. She is so thrilled that she can now wear boots big enough to fit her spurs. Whoopie Ti Yi Yo!

Today I used my birthday money and bought a set of these stoneware bowls from Lehman's. Aren't they nifty?! The largest bowl is 2-3/4 gallons large!! I collect 8 quart bowls, so this is even bigger. I have lots of stoneware bowls and I use them all regularly. I am looking forward to getting these in the mail.

Dad left this morning for 2 weeks in Texas. We will miss him. We are also very green-eyed! Dad was hoping to take some of my children with him, but we have too many commitments.

Our latest Maggie update concerning her doctor's appt yesterday. The doctors (a team of 3) want her to see a Rheumatologist as well as an Accupuncturist. After that, she's off to Johns Hopkins. All her bloodwork came back negative, so we know she doesn't have lyme, lupus, and several other similiar diseases. PTL

My brothers are building a new rental home on their farm, so we're going to finish schoolwork and then take off to visit them in Leonardtown (about 20 minutes away). We will stop by our Mennonite neighbor's home and buy a bushel of apples. Yummy!

Many blessings ~ Kathie

Nothing much going on around here the past two days. Lots of schoolwork and reading. I made some more of my honey wheatberry bread but for wheatberries, I used a mixture of hard winter wheat, Golden Prairie wheat, and red wheat. Even though it was delicious, I couldn't tell that I'd used different wheat berries.On Thursday night, my children spent the night outside. I asked them to take a picture of them sitting around the campfire. This is the picture I got:~)
This picture was taken the next morning. They cooked tea and turkey bacon over this campfire.
My camera had gotten left outside in the heavy dew, so the first picture in the morning looked like this...yikes! But it seems to be working fine now.
Mike and Sarah stayed up until 1 am last night making t-shirts for the teens at church. Our church is having our annual Patch the Pirate play. This year's play is called Camp Kookawacka. So the teens will wear these t-shirts in the hopes of looking like campers.
Here's what they ended up with. The shirts were supposed to have a picture on the front, but they ran out of time and ink.
I thought I'd show you this picture of a sink faucet that Mike's friend installed in their home. Mike loved it.

I read this morning on www.cnn.com that the FDA has issued a statement that a tiny amount of melamine is not harmful for adults. Yikes! You can read about it here, but please don't believe it for a second! No wonder our nation is producing more and more autistic children and asthmatics!

Allen's brain must have been dreaming while we were putting the pool away last week because now he wants to take a pool lining and make a hovercraft. He's spent hours researching hovercrafts this week. The scary part is that Mike seemed to catch his spirit! I guess it looked overwhelming because the last thing I heard was that they were looking online for a hovercraft kit. They cost about $500-600. I'm so glad we can't afford that!

Well, we're off to church for a day of dress rehearsal. This is the hard part for me...giving up a weekend. We're praying the Lord will use this play as a ministry outreach.

Enjoy your weekend. Many blessings ~ Kathie