What Makes My Heart Skip a Beat?

Marie over at Primitives by Olde Lady Morgan is having a giveaway and she has added a way for getting a second chance at winning.  All you have to do is write a post about what makes your heart skip a beat.  When I read her post I thought well that's easy - my family.  But then I decided to think on it for a couple of days and I've discovered that there are lots of things that make my heart skip a beat.  Here are a few:

My husband (Mark) of nearly 21 years
most definitely makes my heart skip a beat.
I am one of the luckiest of wives.
He cares and he says so - both in words and actions.  

My son, Clinton, makes my heart skip a beat.

Pretzel m&m's make my heart skip a beat.
I am addicted to these babies!  I kind of wish I had never tried them  because
I  have no self-control about how much is a serving.  (Hint: not a half pound.)

Mark has recently been taking lessons so he can get endorsed for  flying  bi-wing airplanes.
This makes my heart skip a beat for two reasons - first I am a little nervous, but mostly
because I am so happy to see him doing something he loves so much.

Rangeley, Maine makes my heart skip a beat.
I've been there to kayak, quilt, hike and relax.  It is a slice of heaven.

Spending time in the woods and hiking with my family makes my heart skip a beat.
I love the peace I can feel when we do this simple thing.

My parents make my heart skip a beat.  (Sorry about no photo for this one - my mother would kill me if I put a picture of her on my blog.  And I know you just laughed out loud, Libby.)  My parents are tough cookies.  They have raised seven kids, helped with the raising of lots of grandchildren, and have battled several serious health problems in the midst of it all.  I am so proud of them for their independent spirit and so thankful for the moral support they always give.

My Mom's cookie dough makes my heart skip a beat.
I hope she reads this and makes cookies today. :)

I have really enjoyed this fun thing that Olde Lady Morgan has us doing.  I have loved reading the things that other people are writing about that makes their heart skip a beat.   I love when other people find their joy.  I love knowing when people have something to  be grateful for or proud of.  I think that's a big reason why I have enjoyed blogging so much.  I enjoy reading those celebrations that others have going in their lives. I love reading or hearing about successes.  I love reading or hearing about the way people's faith gets them through tough times.  I love knowing that there are people who will lift others up when they need it.  Realizing that there is a lot of good in this world makes my heart skip a beat.  

I wonder if OLM knows that she has kind of given all of us a win here with this little activity?!  If you go to the giveaway post you can find other people who are participating by looking at the comments.  I'm telling you, it's a real pick-me-up to read about what makes a heart skip a beat!

Strawberry Recipes Anyone?

I have two strawberry related recipes to share in case anyone else loves those luscious red berries, too.
On Friday, while I was in "stand-by" status for roofing at the house, I decided to make a strawberry pie for my husband.  This is his absolute favorite kinda pie.  I figured he could use a little comfort food.  The recipe is from his Grandma Rae - one of the kindest, sweetest people I've ever met.  I like to think that this might be where my husband gets a large part of his personality. : )
Now I realize the picture isn't great.  I had a couple of hitches while making the pie.  First of all, I am ashamed to admit I haven't made a pie in more than a year at least.  It might even be two...  So pie crust was going to be a challenge to say the least.  I didn't want to go out to the store for the pre-made pie crust, but I will confess that I've used those life-savers before.   Secondly, in the middle of the process (picture bottom crust in the pie plate and eyeing up top crust preparing to do battle) when my husband called and needed me to run a "quick" errand.  So I left it all laying on the kitchen counter and went on my merry way - for over an hour.  My friend Audrey told me that I should have stashed it in the fridge first, but alas, I didn't.  I realize my crust will not be a blue ribbon contender at any county fair in the near future.  It tastes pretty good, though!  I sprinkled it with strawberry juice and red sugar to disguise how not so great it really looked.  Not sure that was the best move, but it didn't hurt it I guess.

Here's the really-quite-simple-yet-oh-so-tasty-recipe:

Crust:
2 cups flour
1tsp salt
2/3 cup shortening
6 TBSP. water

Stravberry Filling - just mix the following together - no cooking required:
1 pkg strawberries - I would call this about a quart of mashed berries.  (2-3 cups)
2/3 cups sugar
2 TBSP. tapioca

Bake at 400 for 30 minutes.

My second recipe is something I invented last night for our dinner.  We had a long hot ride on the motorcycle and neither of us was interested in anything hot for dinner.  I remember that I had made a batch of Lemon Slush mix from Tastefully Simple LAST SUMMER.  It was definitely time to use it.  You can make this slush with alcohol or without.  It was definitely tasty without!

Well, I scooped some of the slush into the blender, then dumped in some of my leftover crushed strawberries and blended away.  I would say that I had a 2/3 slush to 1/3 strawberry ratio.  It made a VERY refreshing summertime drink!!  I highly recommend the mason jar drinking glasses and bendy straws, too. : )

The perfect complement to our simple dinner of cheese, ham and crackers.  

Aaahh summer Sunday evenings. : )

Hope everyone is having a good start to their week.  It's supposed to get HOT here today so I was given another day off.  The real carpenters are thinking about making it a short work day!!  Hurray!  Maybe we will get to go for a little ride in our jeep! We like going on the back roads and pretend that we are driving through Maine.  It's a kind of mini-vacation for the brain. :D

This can not be summer vacation...

In spite of some truly gorgeous summer days, summer vacation has not started out to be restful and lazy like I had sort of hoped (at least for a day or so). So far there have been two funerals, and working with my husband.
Now don't get me wrong, I LOVE working with my husband most any day.  However, yesterday I worked on the upper roof with him.
I am TERRIFIED of heights!  I even hate driving where there are drop-offs on the side of the road.
But he's lost another of his good helpers, so I'm in.  My nephew, Caleb, snapped this lovely photo of us working on the roof.  I am the shingle handing person.  My husband is the shingle laying person.  If the photo appears blurry, it's because my knees won't stop shaking.

When you are this far up in the air and you are terrified, I think we all know what physiological response occurs.  That's right - you have to pee.  Constantly.  Now fortunately for the homeowners, Mark is building this house up a long dirt driveway, on a hill up from town.  It is a lovely spot - truly a slice of heaven.  Unfortunately for me, the only bathroom accommodations on site is this:

It is very smelly, which is why the door is propped open.  I will not go in there.  So of course yesterday as soon as I got to the job site, I started to think about you know what.  Of course, that would be the day that all of the other trades showed up unscheduled to check in about their parts.  So I had lots of time to think while I waited for my husband to start roofing.  At first, I thought, "This will be fine.  I can run home at lunch time." Then I thought, "Gee, I wish I didn't drink anything this morning before I got here."    After I could no longer stand it, I bounced down the gravel driveway, and into civilization, and went in the back door of my brother's house and used the bathroom next to Carol's beauty salon.  I knew I couldn't do that again once I got dirty from the shingles.  So then I played the "Think about something else." game.
I swear to you, I have never been so happy for it to get really hot so I could start sweating and not need to use the above facilities.
Today I am only on call. Some of the roof vents are on back-order and aren't in yet.  (Thank you, vent people!)   My husband has to move to the garage roof and start that.  I suggested that he call me when he was ready for my help.  Or if the vents come in, I can go get them.  Anything to not go up to that roof again.  Anything.  I swear I dreamed all night about falling off that roof.
So now I am alone in my house, and I think I would like to do a little housework.  Funny how a girl's idea of fun can change sometimes. : )

On death, building, and ninja wind chimes

Sorry for the prolonged absence.  Life got in the way of blogging... again.
When I started this blog, I did it for my sister - Libby - in Missouri who can't be "home" as often as she'd like.  I had enjoyed visiting lots of other blogs, and frankly had been using it as an escape for several months.  Once I started my own blog, I began to be overwhelmed by the guilt because I didn't post regularly.  I mean, wasn't I letting my followers down?  Okay, folks here's the truth of it all:  I'm not that interesting and my life has not exactly been rosy for about two years now.  I enjoy many blessings, and have been enduring some serious challenges.  Some things that most people never have to face directly, along with lots of the other "stuff" that everyone deals with a little at a time, or like us, all at once.  Life, right?   Anyway, I guess I have felt the need to explain my sporadic posting for a while now.  I can't really go into any great detail because it's not just about me.  I have thought about closing my blog, but I guess I don't really want to.  When I do have the opportunity to post something positive, it's really helpful to share it with people who might enjoy it.   I know people stop by my blog and check in because I can tell from the stats when I think to check them.  I don't mind if people don't leave a comment.  I don't always have time to leave comments when I visit blogs, either.   Like I said, I sometimes use blog visiting as a momentary escape, and I'm thinking maybe other people do, too.  So with that said, here's some of what has been keeping me busy lately:

My husband's grandfather passed away last week, and his funeral was Saturday. A couple of weeks ago he was out doing some haying and there was an accident.  He had shut off the tractor and was back by the hay bine clearing some grass when the rig rolled back on him.  He suffered some broken ribs, lacerations, and a bruised hip.  He was flown by helicopter to a hospital equipped to deal with his level of trauma.  He was doing well, but developed some blood clots and one broke loose and went to his heart.  He died fairly quickly at that point.  He was 91 and died doing what he loved.  I wish everyone could be so lucky.   Grandpa used to be a big horse puller some years ago, and the family chose to send him off with one last ride to his resting place.

.
My husband is a builder and his current project is to build the house pictured above.  He has had his hands full with this project as it is a fairly large house, and has some out of the ordinary specifications, and he's had some worries about having enough help.  We have been blessed because the help he has had has been terrific!  My brother, my nephew, and a couple of local guys have been part of the process.  They all have great work ethic and really care about doing a good job.  Sometimes you take that for granted, but recently their was a visitor from the city on site.  He'd been there a little while when he said to my husband, "How do you get your help to actually work?"   My husband's reply was simply, "That's what we do here."   Though he didn't need the reminder about the blessing of these solid helpers, it definitely brought it into sharper focus.

If you look closely at the house picture you can just see the above wind chimes on the right hand side of the porch.  My husband created these and hung them one day and they are actually quite tuneful!  I add them to this post because when I saw them they reminded me of a saying I have on a rock-turned-doorstopper in my sewing room.  "If life gives you scraps, make a quilt."  I knew that my husband was putting that particular idea into a different form when he made the ninja wind chimes.  Sometimes you have to really listen for the music behind the noise in life.  

And the winner is...

...Everyone!!
Sorry for the slight delay in announcing the winners.  I don't know what possessed me to think that I would be able to do this on time in the midst of the end of the year stuff at school.
I have enough flags for all six of the people who left a comment, so I will be emailing them to ask for their addresses so I can pop these in the mail Monday morning.  I loved everyone's idea for what they might do with the flag!  You are all so clever.  : )   I hope you'll post a picture of your creation if you get a chance to make something!

Off to work on the memory books for my students.  I can't believe our two years together are coming to a close.  We have a graduation ceremony Monday morning, and I am kind of dreading it.  I hate to see it end.  (But I will admit that I am ready for a little summer rest...)

Hope everyone is having a great weekend.  Happy Father's Day!
Melissa

A very small giveaway... four in fact!

This runner is one of the first things I ever made when I was learning how to sew.  I bought extra flag fabric because I was sure that A.) I would screw it up while sewing, and B.) Of course I would be making several of these for gifts.  Turns out I was wrong on both counts. 

I would like to share some of the little flags with someone who might use them for a little  patriotic themed project.  I am thinking about appliqueing one to a background fabric and then stitching a little verse on the top and bottom.  (I love that saying "Land of the free because of the brave" so maybe I'll do that one.  

Anyway, I have extra little flags I would like to share with interested parties.  If you would like a chance to win one of them,  please leave a comment below.  I would love to hear what idea you might have for how to use your flag if you win.  Oh, the flags are approximately 7 1/2 by 5 1/4 inches with no seam allowance.

I hope a few of you out there might like to enter! :)

Oops! I almost forgot to tell when this giveaway chance ends!  Let's say Thursday at midnight so that might give me a chance to get addresses and pop these in the mail on Saturday. 

Happy Flag Day!

I am still here, just not very often lately!  The end of the school year is always crazy, so I haven't had a lot of time for reading blogs, commenting, or posting.   I have a very small giveaway planned to celebrate Flag Day, so hope to be back tonight with details.  Have a lovely day!