Why I like Celtic music

Most of you know I really like celtic music. I love it because it can be lively and up beat and make you want to dance or it can be slow and soothing like a ballad and make you want to cry. It can also be dramatic and make you feel proud to be scottish, irish or whatever branch of celtic you are. (I am guessing since I only have celtic ancestry,) This is probaly one of my favorite celtic songs and I love this particular version of it.

For those of you who don't know; Caledonia is the ancient name for Scotland and is still the name used by poets.

Day 46

Day 46

And this little piggie went "wee wee wee" all the way home

Today when we were driving home we saw all these pink things on our lawn. We were very confused and were all trying to guess who put them there. It turns out our lawn was covered with littlle pigs made from milk cartons lovingly placed there by some of our neighbors for a fund raiser type thing. They were all decorated differently and were very cute and creative. I had a very hard time deciding which one was my favorite to take a picture of.

Day 45

Day 45

Pine Needles and Frost

Actually there is no frost on the needles (being that the picture was taken in June) but because of the blue color I shot the picture in it looks a little like there is frost on the pine needles.

Day 44

Day 44

Smokey Billows


There was a fire kinda near us last week. 300 homes were evacuated. Thankfully no one was injured. The fire never got very near us but we could see and smell the smoke and we got ash rained on us.

Day 43

Day 43

Barbed Protection

This picture reminds me of a prarie somewhere in the mid west in the summer. I am not sure why.

Day 42

Day 42

Sewing Essentials

We have been doing A LOT of sewing around here. In the past week 5 vests, 2 pairs of pants, a cravat and a purse have been made and two shirts were altered. At one point we had four sewing machines here (that was in a desperate attempt to find a button hole maker that worked. As I am writing this mom is sitting across from me sewing on buttons (there are about 68 that need to be sewed so that is what us girls have been doing in our spare time.) All this to say that I thought this picture would encapsulate our week :):)

Day 41

Day 41

Peek a boo I See You

Day 40!!!!!

WHOOHOO I have made it to day 40 and I still have something to post. I must confess that there have been days when I have suffered a severe case of photographers block. We will see how I manage the next 273 days :P

Day 40

Sunny Circles

"In the right light, at the right time, everything is extraordinary."

Aaron Rose

Day 39

Day 39

"Then the trees of the forest will sing for joy before the Lord; For He is coming to judge the earth."

1 Chronicles 16:33

Day 38

Day 38

STOP THE SUNSET!!!

No, not really, I quite enjoy sunsets. This one was very golden (as you can see since it turned the stop sign gold) because of the smoke in the sky. It was really cool.

Day 37

Day 37

Potato Peelings

Those are Hannah's lovely hands just FYI. It would be very difficult for me to peel potatoes and take a picture at the same time : ) I was the one peeling the potatoes though; she just posed for the picture.

Day 36

Day 36

Window flowers

"A morning-glory at my window satisfies me more than the metaphysics of books."

Walt Whitman

I am not exactly sure who Walt Whitman is or what the metaphysics of books are but I know that flowers in windosw are wonderful!!

White Chocolate Almond Orange Cookies

These cookies may sound a little strange but they are amazing. I am not a huge fan of white chocolate (it is not real chocolate in my opinion) but I love these cookies. This recipe makes a big batch. We lost count at around 55 cookies :)

Ingredients:
1 1\2 cups softened butter
1 1\2 cups sugar
1 1\2 cups brown sugar
4 eggs
3 tsp. vanilla
4 1\2 plus 4 TBS. all purpose flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 12oz. bag white chocolate chips
1 cup chopped almonds
the zest of 2 oranges

Preheat oven to 350. I always forget to do this that is why I am telling you first thing.

 In a large bowl beat butter and sugars till light and fluffy

Add eggs. By the way I learned how to crack eggs with one hand!! Isn't that exciting?!! :):P

and vanilla. Beat until well blended.

In another bowl combine flour

and baking soda and salt

Gradually add to creamed mixture; beating well

In a food processor chop the almonds so that they go from looking like this

to this. Add to batter

zest the oranges. oooh I love the deep orange color of the zest. Add this to the batter.

Finally add the white chocolate chips

Stir everything well

Scoop into nice round scoops onto a cookie sheet.

Bake for 8 - 14 minutes or until the edges are just beginning to turn golden brown. I cooked mine for 9 minutes. Let them cool for a minute on the cookie sheet and then transfer them to a cooling wrack. These are supposed to be soft and chewy

ENJOY!!!!!!
By the way if your try these please let me know you did and what you thought of them. I would greatly appreciate that. :):)

Clouds!!

Yesterday I took a walk in the evening and I literally had my head in the clouds. There were a lot of clouds in the sky and these clouds were something else. They were so dramatic and amazing with the sun setting and making them change colors. I ran home and grabbed my camera and took a whole bunch of pictures. FYI I took all these pictures on the same setting

.

" We watched the faces in the clouds till the clouds had blown away."

" Rows and flows of angel hair and ice cream castles in the air and feather canyons everywhere. I've looked at clouds that way."

 I love the pink interspersed with the grey in this picture.

 

This is where the sun was setting. Unfortunately the trees and houses were blocking my view but I tried to get a picture of the pretty oranges, purples and pinks. 

When I was walking around looking at the clouds I was struck with how small I was. These clouds were HUGE and they didn't even fill up the sky. It made me think of the verse in Hebrews 2
“What is man, that You remember him?
Or the son of man, that You are concerned about him? You have made him for a little while lower than the angels;
You have crowned him with glory and honor, And have appointed him over the works of Your hands;

Day 35

Day 35

There was a soldier; a southern soldier.

This is my brother all geared up and ready for the Gettysburg reenactment in July (I think he is just missing the vest) We are all super excited!!!!!

Day 34

Day 34

                                              Summer Time is Coming!!
The first day of summer is just around the corner but the weather thinks that summer time is already here. I think on this particular day it got up to 115! YIKES!!! It made us very thankful for air conditioning.

Day 33

Day 33

Relaxing on the water

This is Hannah relaxing in the middle of the river.

Day 32

Day 32

Time is ever ticking

Time goes ever on and on. We can never reclaim it once it is gone so don't waste it and dont try to speed it up. Thank God for every moment you have.

P.S. can any of my photographer friends tell me how long my shutter speed was for 

this picture ? :)

Day 31

Day 31

Trail Mix!!

I was told that this picture made this food look tastier than it did in real life. :)

Day 30

Day 30

 ^{This little light of mine}

 “No one, after lighting a lamp, puts it away in a cellar nor under a basket, but on the lamp stand, so that those who enter may see the light. ³⁴ The eye is the lamp of your body; when your eye is clear, your whole body also is full of light; but when it is bad, your body also is full of darkness. ³⁵ Then watch out that the light in you is not darkness. ³⁶ If therefore your whole body is full of light, with no dark part in it, it will be wholly illumined, as when the lamp illumines you with its rays.”

Luke 11:33-36

Day 29

Day 29

Happy Snacking!!!

I love snacking on peanuts. They are probably one of my favorite snacks and shelled peanuts are even better :)

Day 28

Day 28

 Reflections

This is my brother Scott. I am not a huge fan of his sun glasses but I do think it is cool that I can see my reflection in them when I am talking to him :) That is their one redeeming value  ( and the fact that he likes them)

Day 27

Day 27

Golden Sunset

Day 26

Day 26

Basketball

I really don't like basketball. Well, it is not that I don't like it, it is that I have no clue how to play so it bores me to tears watching it. To me it looks like a whole bunch of guys running around with a ball and trying to throw it into the hoop. I need someone who enjoys basketball to tell me how to play, what is going on, how it is scored etc, then I will like it much more. (if it is any comfort to all you basketball fans I did watch the NBA's championship game, the one that is kinda like the Superbowl except only for basketball.)

Day 25

Day 25

Disguised

Hmmm... I cant think of anything to say except that I really like this picture of Hannah.(The pose was her idea.)

Day 24

Day 24

Savory Skillet

Bell peppers sauteed in a cast iron skillet typify what I think of when I think of a real Mexican restaurant. Just thought y'all might want to know that :)

Day 23

O.K so I had blog problems again that is why I haven't posted any pictures recently. Hopefully dad has finally solved the problem but we aren't sure.

Day 23

Flowing Streams

"As the deer pants for the flowing waters, So my soul pants for You, O God."

Psalm 42:1