I know my bloggy friends think I am a really bad friend for not giving these awards out promptly. Please forgive me! I really do love y'all.

The first award I received was the Lemonade Award. This was given to me by Katie at Tatersmama's Take on Things. Thank you so much Katie!!! Katie lives down under in Australia and I usually leave her blog with a smile on my face. She's so funny!

I would like to give this award to:

Alli at A Handmaiden's Journey
Mildred at Nalley Valley
AnnMarie at Rudstrom Family Blog

Now, I now it says 10 blogs, but I a lot of the blogs I read either already have this award or are award free blogs.

Here are your rules winners:

1. Put the logo on your blog or post.

2. Nominate at least 10 blogs which show GREAT ATTITUDE and/or GRATITUDE

3. Be sure to link to your nominees within your post.

4. Let them know that they have received this award by commenting on their blog.

5. Share the love and link to this post and to the person from whom you received the award


The second award I was given was the Excellence of Blogcasting Award. I received this award from Alli at A Handmaiden's Journey. Thanks Alli!!! Alli has a very uplifting blog about following the Lord on the path less traveled.

I would like to give this award to:

Heather at Want What You Have
Barb at Victoria Hill Farm
Kristen at We Are THAT Family

Here are the rules:

1. Post the award on your blog

2. Pass it on to some friends, up to 15

3. Let them know they've received the award.

If I've given an award to someone who doesn't want to pass it on, that's fine. I just want y'all to know how much I enjoy reading your blogs!

Here is a video update of the puppies. It was hard to get good video of them because they just wanted to run under my feet. We have put them in a kennel outside now. My laundry room was so tore up, we will have to redo part of it.



I told them they were a lot cuter outside, lol! It's about time to find homes for them. I'll give y'all first dibs. Aren't they cute?

A wonderful young lady named Alli from A Handmaiden's Journey tagged me for this. Alli is 16 years old and is striving to follow the Lord in all she does.


Here are the directions:

Use the first letter of your name to answer ALL of the following questions. If the person before you has the same 1st letter pick a new one. You CAN NOT use anything twice, and you CAN NOT use your own name for the boy/girl question. After you are done, tag 5 people.......

1. What is your name?: Nancy
2. A 4 letter word: Nice
3. A boy's name: Nathan
4. A girl's name: Nell
5. An occupation: Nascar driver
6. A color: Navy Blue
7. Something you wear: Necklace
8. A Food: Nectarine
9. Something found in the bathroom: Neutrogena soap
10. A place: North Carolina
11. A reason for being late: Need to go back to get something I forgot.
12. Something you shout: No!
13. A movie title: Nancy Drew
14. Something you drink: Night Cap
15. An animal: Nurse Shark
16. A song title: Nothin' But a Good Time
17. A verb: nurse

Wow! That was harder than I expected! I'm not going to tag anyone in particular, but if you want to play along, let me know, so I can come and read yours!

I have tried so many times to get pictures of my youngest son asleep. He would always wake up before I could get any pictures taken. But, the other day we had to go somewhere not long after he went to sleep, so I snuck in there.


Jackpot! Pictures of my gorgeous little boy asleep.


Isn't he precious? Uh oh, he's reaching for his blankie.


I just kept snapping away until....He caught me!

On Sunday we had a guest preacher at our church. He was a retired minister from the community. Sometimes it's nice to hear from someone new. He told the story of David and Goliath.

We all know the story of David and Goliath. The young small David killed the big strong Goliath. But, how did he do it? Well, of course, with a stone and a sword. But, David would not have been able to do it without the Lord's help. He had faith. He knew he was facing a giant and knew he couldn't do it alone.

There are all kinds of giants we may be facing in our lives. Not necessarily people, but obstacles. Things that we think we can face without help from above. What is your Goliath? I know I have many in my life. We just need to remember with God we can conquer all. Always pray for His help and we can vanquish the giants in our lives.

Sorry, I've been gone so much this week. I have been so busy! It started out Monday morning with a phone call. My husband's grandpa wasn't doing well and they called everyone in to come and see him. We went up there and somehow convinced him to go to the hospital. They let him come home the next day, remind me not to go to that hospital.

Since then, we have been going up there and visiting almost daily and giving those taking care of him a break. He seems to be doing a little better. He has gotten up a little in the past couple of days. He's still got his sense of humor, and his mind is still great. I hope he will recover and be able to get around again.

That brings us to yesterday, it was the WORST day! My husband and I had taken a quick run to town when we got a phone call from our son. He said dogs were attacking our rooster Napoleon and that they were killing our chickens. We sped all the way home and made it in minutes.

When I got home, I saw dead chickens everywhere. You can't even begin to understand how angry I was. It was a massacre! One poor chicken was in at least 3 different places from one side of the yard to the other.

I immediately called 911. Now, I know this was not a true emergency, but I was so upset I didn't care. My babies had just been attacked and killed. They said they would send someone out.

They had animal control call and say they couldn't do anything unless we knew who the dogs belonged to. We didn't but, I told him not to worry, if the dogs came back they would be dead. They did tell me they would put out a dog trap on Monday to try and catch them. Animal control also said they don't trap coyotes only dogs. But, this attack was by 2 dogs.


I was very scared because I couldn't find the rest of my chickens. We had 28, and they were nowhere to be seen. After a bit of calling and looking we started finding some of them. We found about 10 not long after we started looking. But, after calling for about 40 minutes no more were coming. My husband took off on the four-wheeler looking for both the chickens and the evil dogs. I started walking towards the woods. I found 1 hiding under the jacuzzi and 1 under the steps to the house. I also found 1 in the woods who was alive, but died a few hours later.

It took a long time, but more chickens started showing up. Some from out of nowhere, a lot from the woods at the bottom of the hill. I just knew I had lost my 2 newest and prettiest pullets, but they showed up, a few hours later. One of them I had given up hope on coming back, but I guess she was so scared, she wasn't leaving where she was hiding. If you are wondering, the guineas flew to the trees to escape the attack, so they were safe.

In the end, we lost 6 hens. All but one of our polish hens died. Her rooster, Napoleon, was badly injured, but is looking a little better this morning. A total of 9 chickens were injured enough that I can tell something is wrong with them. All of them were traumatized by having their friends killed. I don't think we will ever let them free-range again. I don't think I can take it if something like this happened again. Sorry for this post being so long, I guess I just need to vent.

What am I?

I hope everyone had a great romantic weekend. I did too! Except instead of spending Saturday night with my husband, I spent it with my BFF. Don't worry, I still love my husband, well most of the time anyway! My friend needed some work done on her car and my husband offered to do it.


So, I made my friend go with me to my church. We had something called The Loving Hearts Cafe. We ate by candlelight (that was the romantic part), and afterward they had an auction. Sorry, I forgot to take my camera to the church.


The auction was made up of some new, some used items donated by people in the church. They were trying to raise money for some of our members to go to Salkehatchie. It's a ministry designed to help others by fixing up the homes of people who are in need.


I really hadn't planned on buying much anything. But, as it turns out, once I start bidding, I can't stop. It's a sickness, really. An addiction, I guess. I ended up bidding on a whole lot of things. Most of the things I came home with were toys for the kids, a pecan pie, a heart-shaped cake, and a box of cupcakes.


Hunter got a ladybug costume he played in and a Tickle Me Elmo that falls over and gets back up. He really loves that Elmo! He got tons of other things too.


We ended up with so many boxes of stuff we had to go back the next day to get the rest of them. But, it was all for a great cause, so I don't feel so bad about it. We will donate what the kids don't play with to our Hospice Thrift store. Believe it or not, this isn't everything, half of the stuff we bought went home with my friend Barb.

I hope everyone has a wonderful time today with someone special!


Happy Valentine's Day!

*******Warning:This post may contain disturbing images*******


I think I may have found my killer! No, I haven't been able to shoot him yet, and I stress the word yet. If y'all thought I was mad on Monday, you ain't seen nothing yet! I am so mad now it took me 2 days to write this post. I only have 4 guineas left!


When my son went out Wednesday morning, he noticed a bunch of feathers. I was praying it wasn't what I knew it was. It was one of my beautiful guinea's feathers. We looked in the field and saw another pile of feathers. We walked over and saw feet. Both of my guinea's feet were in that pile of feathers. I felt so sick! And angry!


After trying to calm down, we tried to piece together what happened. We looked at the run where it happened. The guineas roost on top of the chicken run and there was a pile of feathers there too. I believe something jumped up (over 6 feet) and grabbed it, then took it in the field and ate it. That just makes me sick saying that!


My son was tracking and found something else disturbing. I think it used to be part of the wattles of the guinea. The picture is blurry, be thankful, you can't see it that good.


After finding these tracks, I have to agree with Southern Grits & Tidbits. She said it could be a coyote, and I believe these tracks prove that it probably was.


Here is a picture of a coyote. In some states, they pay you to kill them. I wish SC was one of them, cause if I get a chance, it will be dead. They all will.

We went to the flea market this weekend to look around. I was looking to see if they had some hens and a ride on toy for Hunter. I had looked at the store, but they are so expensive for a good one, anyway. The first flea market is huge, but didn't have anything. The second one was an indoor flea market and kind of small but they have a lot of baby/toddler things outside.


We found a John Deer Gator ride on toy for $5. It is the kind you have to push with your feet on the floor. It had buttons on it for sounds, but they didn't work. We looked it over and it is really sturdy. Better made than something we could have gotten at the store for a reasonable price. It was really well-used, but still worth more than the $5 price tag. So, we got it.


Hunter was with us and he cried the whole way home because he wanted to play with it. He just didn't understand he needed to stay in his car seat. As soon as we got home we cleaned it up and let him play with it. Later his big brother put batteries in it to see if it would work, and it did! It has cute sounds and a song that keeps getting stuck in my head, lol!


He loves his new toy, it even has a tailgate he can put up and take down. He took one of the puppies for a ride. I'm not so sure the puppy liked it. I am so thankful I was able to find him a John Deere Gator!

I received The American Patriot's Almanac: Daily Readings on America a few weeks ago. I chose it because we homeschool and I thought it would be a great addition to our library.

It tells of events that happened each day for 365 days. You could make it last a whole year. After each of the main stories, there are other key dates in American history. It's really interesting to read what happened on certain days, like your birthday.

Today's story tells where teddy bears came from. Did you know that they are named after former President Teddy Roosevelt? It goes back to a day when he was not having any luck hunting bears and one of his guides tied a bear to a tree so the president could shoot it. But, the president wouldn't shoot the bear because it was helpless. So places started selling a lot of stuffed bears called teddy bears. Cute story, isn't it?

I love history, so this was fun for me to read, but I think it would be fun for anyone. It makes me feel more patriotic. If you want to know more about it you can find it at here.

That is what the sign I am going to put up on my land will say. I am sick of losing my guineas and chickens.


We lost this pretty little pullet this weekend. Her name was Hawk. We got her last November, she wasn't even laying yet. Her sister will be sad without her. They always stayed together.


When we counted the chickens Saturday night, we were missing one. We found these big bunches of feathers. She must have been grabbed during the daylight, because there were no feathers coming out of the coop. This leads me to believe that it was a hunting dog that got her. I don't think a bobcat or a coyote would have came out during the daytime. If you'll remember, this is not the first time one of my chickens has been attacked.


The sign will be a warning to all hunters whose dogs run on my land. I will shoot them if they attack my chickens or guineas. I don't mind them running through, but if they mess with my animals, they are gonna get shot at.

Sorry if I sound so mean, I am just so stressed with losing my pets. I love all my chickens and don't want anything to happen to them.

This is a song I haven't heard in awhile. But, it's lyrics really speak to what we need to be doing.


Take Time To Be Holy

1. Take time to be holy,
speak oft with thy Lord;
abide in him always,
and feed on his word.
Make friends of God's children,
help those who are weak,
forgetting in nothing
his blessing to seek.

2. Take time to be holy,
the world rushes on;
spend much time in secret
with Jesus alone.
By looking to Jesus,
like him thou shalt be;
thy friends in thy conduct
his likeness shall see.

3. Take time to be holy,
let him be thy guide,
and run not before him,
whatever betide.
In joy or in sorrow,
still follow the Lord,
and, looking to Jesus,
still trust in his word.

4. Take time to be holy,
be calm in thy soul,
each thought and each motive
beneath his control.
Thus led by his spirit
to fountains of love,
thou soon shalt be fitted
for service above.

Y'all know I've had my son's dog in the house in our laundry room since she had puppies. She's always been an outside dog, but it was so cold when her puppies were born that we brought her inside with them.

Lately she has been scratching on the door a lot. At first, I thought she was doing it because she needed to go outside and potty. However, she started doing it more and more. I didn't realize how much she had been doing it until I went in there last night and saw this:


But, somehow I was only focusing on one side, I did not see the other side until later.


I've been putting her outside for a few hours a day. So y'all need to help me here, I have questions. Can the puppies survive outside in the cold with their mom? The temps have been around 20 or so. When can they make it without their mom being with them? What should I do, before she tears the whole wall completely out?

This is a picture of my little one Hunter and his cousin Joshua. Joshua is on the right side of the picture. Aren't they cute hugging?

You probably don't remember but Josh was born about 2 months early. When they took him to the doctor last week, she said she thought he may have a slight case of cerebral palsy. Sometimes he will ball up his fists like he wants to punch you. Apparently she thinks he does this too often and may have a problem.

They are going to take him to a different city for a second opinion. Hopefully another doctor will have a different diagnosis. He's about 9 months old now. I thought they could tell about that before now, but I don't really know a lot about it.

If you don't mind, say a prayer for Josh and his mom and dad. They are really worried right now. Thanks!