Thursday, August 29, 2013

Taking Time To Be

Good evening and come on in Through My Back Door. There is coffee on and it is so pleasant here tonight. It is DD and it tastes as good as it smells.  I love this time of the evening, when the day is coming to a close and you can just be. I love to "be". I hosted dominoes here today, so it has been a good day. I had beef and noodles, green beans, beets, and mashed potatoes. Apple pie and ice cream was dessert. I made the noodles and have to say they were tasty. I had never made them before, but probably will again. I took the left overs out to Amanda and Clay for their supper, as they like beef noodles too. I thought I would check in and tell you I have done some fall decorating! I thought I would do it and get it over with. Even though the house is still on the market,(another month) I went ahead and did what I wanted for fall. Have you decorated yet? Before I share some pictures, I want to tell you about my laugh at the grocery store the other day. I had bought large bags of DD coffee and the cashier, a young man, said to me, "Do you like that drunken doughnut coffee?" I got so tickled, he and I both laughed. He said," I got my tongue twisted, didn't I?" I will never look at DD coffee the same.lol Don't you just love young people? I am not one bit worried about America's future with the wonderful young people I run into all the time. Are you?
I have such a hard time with my mantle. Don't know why.
Stove board. I am still pleased with my noodle board, I found on the LYS years ago.

That is all for today. I have to save some for next post. Nothing has been done outside of course. That will come after Labor Day.
I love using silk leaves for fall. I just stick them every where, and gourds too. I want some long handled gourds and some bittersweet. Hopefully I can find some.
Remember the cat who came here and my friends Janie and Arthur adopted? He has been diagnosed with terminal cancer. Our hearts are broken, but he has had a wonderful life with them. They are so sad and if you would just say a little prayer for them. You know we all get so attached to out pets.
I am so glad you came Through My Back Door, where life is good.
betty
PS: Next post I will finish the church/house
PSS:I want to share our last 4 Generation Picture with Amelia
She is the sweetest little thing. She smiles all the time, even when she is sleeping. Someone on FB told me their grandmother always said when a baby smiled in it's sleep the angels were whispering to them. Isn't that sweet?
PSSS: I am looking forward to making some homemade apple butter. Deb and Amanda want to do it with me, so they will know how. Won't that be fun? I will post pictures.lol



Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Through My Back Door, Goes Glam!

Good morning and come in and have a cup of coffee. I am so sorry, but I ate the cake! Next time maybe, okay? It is about time for Pumpkin Spice coffee, is it not? Anyway I am glad to see you and want to share a wonderful home with you. We are going on a field trip to Springfield, Il.Yes, we are going Glam!!! Let me first explain, that I have always loved antiques and "Early American" decorating, as it used to be called. Now I try to lean toward Colonial, which I love. However, last week when we visited Beth and Ryan, Beth introduced us to Lolo Moore's Interiors. She had hosted Beth's baby shower at her house and Beth had commented, she wished her Mom and Grandmom could have come up for the shower, as "they would love your house." Lois kindly invited Beth to bring us. Her husband is an author and had written this book for Grandpa's and grandson's, entitled,"50 Things That Make Me Sad". After reading it we decided Michael needed it for he and Andrew to read, so we went to her shop, Lo Lo Moore's, and purchased several. I purchased one for the church library, but instead gave it to Curt, in memory of his CoCo. (They were very close). The day we visited her shop she reissued her invitation to come see her home. Need I say we jumped at it!lol It is a church they converted into a home. I am telling you it is gorgeous! I have never seen so much color and I LOVED it. I could have settled in here and been quite happy. Who woulda thunk it?lol I hope you enjoy the visit as much as I did.
These are the outside pix I took. Isn't is wonderful?
She has several sitting areas through out but her livingroom is just beautiful. I liked the pinks she uses, and her reason for that is, people live in a non colorful work environment and need color in their life at home. Makes sense, doesn't it?
Yes, they have a fire pole in this room. Ryan  has the distinction of being the first one to go "UP" the pole.lol
And a carousel. It is a crank one and Lois is giving Deb and Michael a ride.lol
This has several seats behind it.
They left the podium in the Sanctuary.
And the Baptistry.
This is blurry but I wanted you to see the color. I love it. It is so warm and inviting.
dining room. I hope you have enjoyed the tour. Next visit I will show the bedrooms and a bathroom, as well as some other pictures. I know most everyone who reads my blog is prim,but thought(hoped) you would enjoy these. I certainly did.
Thank you Lois for allowing the tour and thank you all for coming Through My Back Door where life is good.
betty
PS: Don't you love my fall header? Slip over to the Blog Fairy on my sidebar and view what she has. She is so good at creating headers and back grounds. I like to tell her she makes me look good.lol
PSS: My granddaughter in law, Lindsey, (yes the one who thought I had decorated for Christmas in July)lol has started a blog. It is Jenkins Journey, and is on my side bar. Will you visit her and tell her I sent you? She is a delightful girl and just a joy to be around.
PSSS: I have my fall decorating done inside. YEAH!










Monday, August 26, 2013

Home Again

Good afternoon and welcome Through My Back Door. You are welcome to a glass of sweet tea and a cookie. I have to have my sweets! It has been such a wonderful last week. Deb, Michael, and I went to see Amelia! There are no words to describe the joy of being able to hold her any time we wanted. Well, not just anytime because there were three of us fighting over and that didn't count her Mama and Daddy.lol Then on Friday her Uncle Curt and Aunt Lindsey drove up from Nashville. So, more competition. LOL!(Actually, we were all good to share) She is just the sweetest little baby and growing so fast. She smiles whenever you talk to her, and sometimes when she is asleep, she will just be smiling. We had a nice trip up and back, The visit while we were there was just perfect. Lots of good food, card games, and just enjoying one another and being so thankful this little miracle baby was home. Her Granddad was the first to keep her other than her Mama or Daddy. This is the way we left him and this is the way we found him, when we came home. He said, "he was angel sitting."


Now is this contentment or not?
We took a lot of pictures  too.lol


This was taken at a friend of Beth's beautiful home. It was an old church and they transformed it into the most gorgeous home, ever. I cannot wait to share it on my next blog post. I can't even describe it.
We also went to see our friends the Herrons. They live over an hour from Beth, but she let us go.lol Carla, Deb, and I met on a forum. They drove to Beths one time to meet us. We met again when the TPP Forum had a Gathering in Lexington a few years ago. Since then they have visited us and we all met last summer over at Sandi Stephens. This is a case of the internet being the foundation for a close friend ship. She has the cutest prim house, ever. We had seen pictures of course, but pictures just don't do prim homes justice.


Here are just a few pictures of her house. We had the best visit, along with a delicious lunch. BTW, when her husband Daryl and Michael met a few years ago, they bonded too. They have similar interests and both just the nicest men ever! I want to show you a few more pictures I took at Carla's.



Those boots were her daddy's. Are they not just the sweetest?


The guys on their screened porch. It was wonderful to sit out there. When Carla posted a picture of it once on the forum, I said I would love to sit out there and visit. Never in my wildest dreams expected to ever do it.


Don't pay any attention to my picture, just look at the dry sink behind us. I am so grateful we got to have the chance to visit. You see they are moving to Mo. and starting a new adventure. This  house will be such a wonderful place for someone.
On the way home Michael had to stop in a little town and pick up a beautiful apple ladder he had bought, when we went up last month. We were in Debs car and couldn't take it back. This time he drove his Flex and forgot his luggage carrier to go on top. This is how we looked driving for 8 hours!


BTW I am sitting to the right of this ladder. We had made a few redneck jokes about how we looked.


This is looking to the back!  What a lot of laughs we had. Actually it didn't bother me at all. I had plenty of room.
Well, this week is fall decorating time. I am so excited to see my fall stuff. lol Cannot wait to get it done. The house comes off the market next month, so I am going to do what I want and not be worried about it.
On Sunday before we left for Beth's, Douglas brought Gabe over. We don't get to see him often, as they live out of town, but this little red headed boy just acts like he is with us all the time. He is just precious, I am so blessed to have these little people in my life.


He is playing with the old hot wheel cars his Daddy played with here when he was little.
Well I am so glad you came Through My Back Door where life is good.
betty
PS: I CANNOT wait to show you the house in my next post! I will let you see a peek now.


Outside


Yes, an old Carousel inside! Are you excited yet? I asked her if I could take pictures and she said of course!
PSS: We celebrated Amelia's "due date" while we were there!


She was sleeping through it, but we enjoyed her cake! What fun and what a blessing.We give God the glory for her.
PSSS: I cannot wait to see everyone's fall pictures! When are you decorating?



Friday, August 16, 2013

Favorite Things About Summer

Good morning and welcome Through My Back Door. We will have coffee on the front porch, as it is nice out there this morning. Help yourself to to a mug of choice and have a biscuit with some homemade strawberry jam. It is sooooo good. It is kind of sad to see summer come to an end, but it is on its way out and fall is creeping in. I love fall, it is my favorite time of the year. However, I have to admit I love all of the seasons and anticipate each of them. OLM had us do a post a few days ago on why we like fall, so it got me to thinking about why I like summer so much. Summer is so carefree. You get up and throw on a pair of shorts and a shirt and you are dressed. You can have coffee on the porch or patio, and life is so simple. I like that. I realized a long time ago I am a simple person. I have told Deb I could be Amish, except for taking care of the chickens and feathered fowl. She always reminds me I couldn't wear my cute little earrings! I do like my bling!
Any way I am going to post some of my favorite summer pictures. Tell me what your favorite thing about summer is.
Don't you just enjoy geraniums? I think they speak summer.
The house decorated for the 4th of July and Labor Day. Most people take their buntings down after the 4th, but I like the Cape Cod, all summer look.lol
Going to the beach with family and hitting all of our special places to eat.
Yes, I sure enjoy summer. It is one of my favorite times of the year. Especially the days the windows are open and the sweet smells waft in.
This week has been another interesting week, Through My Back Door. We took Mollie to Lulu's TeaRoom for lunch on Tuesday. Another friend of mine went too. Her grands are all grown up and she adores Mollie and Andrew stories.
On the steps at Lulu's. She took Minnie along.
Can you tell we all adore her?
This is my friend Shirley. She is in the domino group and also the Friday night card group. I will have to share a story. Shirley and I don't think we look a thing alike, but when our new pastor came 5 years ago, he and Amy(his wife) constantly confused us. It became a joke, Betty? Shirley?(I wore glasses then and that may have made a difference) Fast forward a few years and we were talking one evening and Shirley asked Mark, "Can you tell us apart now?" and he replied, "Yes. You are the nice one!" We sure got a laugh out of that. (I have to admit I do like to to tease him) He has a wonderful sense of humor.
Wednesday we had dominoes and Dottie and I went thrifting before. I found a few goodies.
Can't have too much pewter. Right?
After lunch on Tuesday we went to Hobby Lobby. Mollie shopped until she dropped again.
Do you see all her bangles! This girl is a girly girl!!!!
I had the nicest surprise this week. A blog reader Kathy Webb, from NC, wrote me the sweetest letter. I was just taken back. Number one, that she enjoyed my blog so much and had kept up with all the happenings here in the last couple of years, and too that she would take time to write me! I appreciate it so much Kathy. You have no idea.  If no one read your blog, why blog. You never know, so this was a bright spot in my week. Actually in my blog life!!!!Thank you so much Kathy. Kathy did what I always intend to do, but somehow never follow through. She took time to tell someone she appreciates them. So in Kathy's honor I am asking all of you to let someone know you appreciate them. You may want to give a friend or acquaintance a hug, a phone call, or actually take the time to write a note. You will be surprised how happy you will make someone and even make your self feel good. let me know if you did this. I am just curious. Can you guess who I am going to send a note to?
I am so glad you came Through My Back Door where life is good.
betty
PS: Please say an extra prayer for Amanda this week
PSS: I hope you will take the time to enjoy the rest of summer. Just soak it up.
PSSS: Again, I am asking you to pray for our teachers, bus drivers, cafeteria workers, and custodians for a blessed school year.