Its almost August!

Wow!  Where did July go?  This month has flown by. 

Here are some updates ~ mom found a house!  Now we are jumping through all the hoops with real estate agents, bank officers, appraisals and inspections.  The house is quite close to us and a cute little 1 story with a flat driveway and lot.  The sellers are moving overseas, so their furniture is staying.  We have started the who wants what process with the grandkids and hopefully will have all that settled when the closing occurs.  There will still be stuff to donate or give away.

And we got a contract on our house in Mississippi!  Yay....Hooray!  Its contingent on them selling their present house, so we are praying that they get a buyer soon!  We left stuff in the house from our last trip, so we didn't have to haul it back and forth it we needed to "camp" in our house again, so we will have a few things to bring back with us after our closing.

We have been hitting the sales for back to school supplies for office depot and office max ~ for our shoebox gifts.  We've got lots of pencils, sharpeners, spiral notebooks, pens, index cards, pencil boxes, etc.  Amy, Granny, Brenda, Bethany and I are going to start working on personal care items for the older girl boxes.  JoAnns has a great 50% off coupon today, so we are getting our supplies on sale....more on that when we set our work day.

2 months from now we will be on vacation and are all very excited about our trip.  Austin will be joining us for the week and his parents will be able to come for the last couple of days.  We are enjoying getting to know him and his family.  And Amy loves their time together. 

The days are long and hot here in GA ~ almost like Mississippi weather, but without the benefit of a backyard pool.  We go out and take care of the dogs, rabbits and chickens in the mornings and evenings.  The garden is still producing some ~ mainly squash and tomatoes.  We do have some more corn to pick.  The green beans have given up in the heat and I've been giving the chickens the plants to munch on.  I am totally thrilled that my sunflowers bloomed ~ the plants are about as tall as I am.  They are planted beside the chicken coop and do provide some shade for the chickens from the afternoon sun.  I am thinking about the coming autumn and winter but its still several months off.

Thankful for ~

air conditioning
cool drinks
indoor projects
sunflowers
house contract
helpful friends

Applique

More chicken applique from my set!  Love finding fabric scraps to use!

Thankful for -
Lots of fabric scraps
Seam ripper (mistakes happen)
Beautifully colored threads

All Is Calm

All is calm....in the coop

Sewing Time

In all our house busyness, and gardening work and preserving the bounty work, I haven't sat down at my sewing machine in weeks.  Quite sad!  This week, I've had 2 days to sit down and work on machine applique projects ~ a new technique to me.  I did my first project on a scrap piece of fabric leftover from another project, it turned out great!  Then I moved to a kitchen towel!  The top chicken is my first project on Wed. and the 2nd was my Thursday project.  I desperately needed new kitchen towels, and decided to decorate them! 

I liked my chicken on the scrap piece too, so I duplicated the 2nd one on a scrap.  I think I will do about 4 more on the fabric and turn it into a chicken table runner ~ my scrap was actually 2 18" long pieces, so I figure I can get 3 chickens on each piece.  These projects are also using my boxes of scraps that I organized in the spring.  Its much easier to look through a photobox size of little scraps than a big blue tote. 

These chickens came from an applique set produced by Designs by JuJu ~ https://www.designsbyjuju.com/.  She has loads of designs ~ everything I have bought from her has stitched out beautifully ~ and she has great sales!  If you love machine embroidery, then you should check her out!  (free advertising....I just really like her designs!) New discovery ~ I just went on the site again....she has 90+ free scripture designs for download....FREE!  On the homepage, click the Bible Verses box on the right side.  This is exciting~at least to me!

Greg got all my new sets downloaded for me last night ~ so I am ready to explore those files today!  Lots of new projects on the horizon! 

Sunday morning I got a sweet gift from a friend that knows I love chickens!  These towels are adorable!

Thankful for ~

surprises
sweet gifts for no reason
date nights with my hubby
great sales on designs
free designs
time to sew

Brain Tired

My brain is just tired of thinking.  The world is getting crazier and this Nation seems to be going bad rather quickly.  Is it just me or is it quite ironic that all the folks that are fighting for rights for certain people groups are largely silent on the lives of unborn babies?  Just something to think about! 

Our house in Miss. is for sale ~ lots of folks have looked at it.  The complaint that some folks have is that the Master closet is too small.  Kinda funny since Greg and I had our summer clothes and winter clothes hanging in there all year long, plus shoes, jackets, hats, and various other things.  And our closets here are even smaller ~ so we both now have dressers and out of season clothes are in boxes in the attic.

Moms house is for sale.  Its a beautiful house in an upscale neighborhood ~ folks complaints ~ it needs updating.  Yes, it has wallpaper in the bathrooms, has carpet in the living areas and tile in the sunroom, kitchen and bathrooms.  Oh, gasp, no granite countertops.  Picky, picky, picky.  How about its move in ready, neutral colors, huge screened porch, sunroom, 2 story stacked stone fireplace?  Different strokes for different folks.

And she has found a house ~ about 3 minutes from us.  Small neighborhood, nice smaller home.  Inspection is Thursday.  It needs a couple of things ~ she wants the carpet out of the bathroom....carpet in the bathroom is just nasty.  Also, it comes with all the furniture ~ the family is moving overseas.  So when the deal is done, and the closing is finished.  All the grandkids get to go through and pick stuff and haul it out.  The rest will be garage sale or donated. 

Anyway, lots to think about it.  I did appreciate the prayer time Franklin Graham had on facebook yesterday for wisdom for the republican and democratic conventions, for police officers, and for the Lord to heal our Land.  I am sure you can find it by searching on fb either under his name or Operation Christmas Child. 

Thankful for ~

freedom of speech (everyones)
choices
new homes and new beginnings
helpful real estate agents (hers and ours)
days of relaxation ~ when we get them!

Short Vacation

Greg and I got to run away from home for a couple of days ~  he had business meetings/classes in Savannah and I went along.  After all he was going to be near my favorite island Hilton Head and then there is the issue of awesome fresh shrimp.  We headed out Sunday after church and drove straight to my childhood happy place Folly Field Beach at Hilton Head.  Its changed quite a bit ~ the little rental houses we stayed in are now McMansions lining the beach and there are 3 or 4 large condo rental places also.  But I still love it, and my sand hating husband indulged my wish to go.  I went prepared with cross stitch and books to read.  We walked the RiverWalk and through the City Market daily (at night) and also got to visit and walk around nearby Tybee Island.  Tybee isn't as crowded as Hilton Head, so I would like to go there and stay sometime. 

We spent many hours playing in these waters as children

My 1st shrimp dinner on the riverwalk in Savannah

found a tiny "butterfly shell, we collected these by the 100's years ago

View of the bridge over the Savannah River from our hotel room

Paula Deens restaurant ~ definitely a Bucket List dinner

Yummy Shrimp & Grits

Thankful for ~

fresh seafood
a few days away
books on my kindle
beautiful sunshine
time with Greg
a break from housework
waves hitting the sand

The House

Our return trip to our old house started out pretty good.  So here are the positives ~

*the tenant had already vacated the house
*The upstairs had been vacuumed
*the trash was in the trash can

Here are the negatives ~

*every upstairs room had to be repainted (neutral) for selling
*the carpet had to be cleaned in one room from multiple spills
*the living room had to be repainted
*the dining room and kitchen needed paint touchups
*the laundry room had to be repainted and shelves put back together
*the master bedroom and bathroom needed paint touch up
*some of the built in shelves and hanging bars in the master closet had been removed
*the upstairs toilet was not operable
*19 lightbulbs had to be replaced
*11 fruit trees had been chopped down
*blueberry and blackberry bushes were gone
*pool maintenance equipment was gone
*yard had not been cut in over a month
*garden planters sported 2-3 foot weeds
*butterfly bush was gone

So we spent the weekend hard at work ~ with some playtime built in!  We did all the painting, touchups, got part of the closet built ins reassembled, fixed the toilet, got the grass cut (thanks to the Tapleys), raked, spread 24 bags of mulch.  Our muscadine vines had finally produced fruit.....lots of fruit ~ Amy and Will collected all that and we made jelly yesterday.  Austin and his parents came up Sunday afternoon and were a great help in all our work.  Plus we got to visit and have fun with them.

Sunday late afternoon, 3 families from our former church & homeschool group came over for a cookout/potluck/swim party.  They all graciously brought side dishes, grilled (thanks Steven), brought coolers, drinks, chairs to sit in, etc.  Lots of visiting, eating, kids swimming, and everyone got to meet Austin.  Our locks on the house got re-keyed thanks to our locksmith friend ~ David F. 

We hired a friend to do handyman stuff that needed to be done for the sale ~ upstairs hall has to be painted, from the living room up, 2 bedroom ceilings needed damage repaired (old damage before we bought the house 11 years ago), tile layed in laundry room (she also removed the "shelf" the washer and dryer sat on and laundry baskets stored under), and house pressure washed.  It goes back on the market today.

Pictures ~

Ragen

Sara

Lauren loved to jump in

my twin friends!

the pool gang

After years of coaxing Lauren finally climbed the slide ladder and went all the way down.

patio visiting

water fun

muscadines ~ we had pounds of these beautiful clusters

Yard cut and mulch spread ~ curb appeal

fun afternoon in the sun with friends of all ages

We are thankful for ~

an awesome real estate agent
time in our pool with friends
fun cookout
no structural damage ~ windows, walls, doors, etc.
water in the pool
friends that don't mind helping~(or if they minded, they hid it well! :)
4th fun at the MS braves game and wonderful fireworks show
trips to OEC, Backyard Burger, Dickies Barbeque & McAllisters
sweet hugs at our former church
Amy & Austin getting to spend more time together

Curve Balls

Life throws plenty of curve balls.  Some you can see coming and some hit you like a freight train. 

Last year we entered into a lease/purchase agreement on our house in MS.  The lease is up....yesterday.  Unfortunately, the gal was not able to secure the financing needed and she is moving out. For the last month, we could see this one coming.

So, we are starting over with the selling process.  We have an awesome real estate agent who has gone above and beyond the realm of helping us.  We are signing with her again tomorrow.

Now, this is not all bad ~ we are going to MS for a campout in our empty house.  Austin and his parents are coming up after his shift at work ends.  Friends will be in and out all weekend.  We've got baseball tickets and will see fireworks.  We can swim in our pool again.

We've got lawn care lined up (thanks Alston) and pool maintenance lined up (thanks Angel).  We are headed over with mops, brooms, cleaners, vacuum, etc.  Hopefully, she will not trash the house as she leaves.

We are thankful for ~

visits with friends ~ some we haven't seen in a year
a good real estate agent
hearing that there are more buyers than available houses in our area
the Lords provision over the last year