Casting Crumbs

Memorial Day, also knows as Decoration day, has for many years been a big deal in my family. I remember going up to the farm as a kid and helping my Grandpa put out the flags on the graves and then pulling them up again after Memorial Day was over. Mike and I always thought it a little weird and creepy walking through the graves. My Grandmother would always decorate their parents graves and then take me to see the headstone that was already engraved with her name on it. That always seemed so morbid to me, yet I loved to look at the unusual grave markers and the dates when people died. I remember seeing the babies and children that died so young. A graveyard has a way of making time stand still and causing reflection in your soul.

Saturday my family plus my parents travelled to the Kirk Cemetary behind my Grandparent’s farm to decorate the family’s graves as tradition would have it. Here are some pictures of our trip to Allendale for the day. I’ve included the gravemarker’s of my ancestors. Hope you don’t find this creepy, somehow it holds a lot of importance to me. (Aunt Carolyn, here are some pictures of home!!)

This is a sign on the stage in the park located on the town’s square.

First Baptist Church of Allendale. This is another site on the square as we drive through town. This is the church my Grandparent’s attended, my Mom and Aunt attended all their growing up years, my Mom was married here and we spent many a Sunday warming the pews ourselves.

The view of the road to the farm house. It hadn’t changed a bit. Someone else is living in the house now, but it looks the same.

The back of Grandpa’s barn as we see it after leaving the cemetary.

Kirk Cemetary. You can see Grandpa’s barn way off in the distance. I used to get up in the hay mow and look out the window overlooking the cemetery.

Gilbert and Leona were my Grandparents. How I miss them! I’m glad I will see them again.

Victoria Evaline and William were my Grandmother’s parents. Evely was named after my Great Grandmother’s middle name.

Cora and William were my Grandpa’s parents.

The boys enjoyed all the flags in the cemetery.

After decorating the graves, we dropped Tom and Julian off at my Grandpa’s pond (yes, we got permission) and took the little ones to the park on the square. It was so hot and muggy so after a short time went back to pick them up. We pulled up on the road and when Tom saw us he made a mad dash for a stringer in the water and pulled up a huge bass. Julian had caught this one!!!

It’s a big one!!

On the way out of town we had to stop at the cafe in town for a huge plate of openfaced roast beef, gravy and mashed potatoes. Yummy!

It was a good day! One I will cherish in my heart. I miss the farm and the “old times”, but time has a way of moving us forward, leading down new paths and new beginnings. We will never forget this place, our origins and I hope never our ancestors. The heritage that I have is a godly one. The men and women that grace the branches of the family tree above me are noteworthy. They were tough, hardworking and all of them valued the importance of having Christ in your life.

“Life is not a journey to the grave with intentions of arriving safely in a pretty well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out and loudly proclaiming … WOW! What a ride!”

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Wow, I haven’t posted for a few days and I am ready to post and everything about my blog looks different! So, here goes. . .see if we can figure this one out. Thanks to James we now have smilies. If you want to add one to your comment just click on the smilie that you want and it will be added where your cursor is at. Thanks, James!

It’s been amazing to me the wildlife I have seen at my house just in the past week. Here are just a few of the things that have passed through our yard. I didn’t take any pics of the horses across the fence, the groundhog, rabbit or the coon a couple nights ago.

This very pregnant little possum was carried into our yard by Lady Dog from next door.

Lady Dog with the kids

Have you all been seeing an enormous amount of ladybugs?

ants

It amazes me how those big black ants help the peonies to open! I heard of a lady that noticed all the big ants and killed them thinking they were going to hurt her flowers. They never opened.

white peony

Check out the babies!

I was really surprised to see these two geese proudly waltzing their little babies up and down our yard. They were adorable!

When I see all these wonderful creatures feeling at home around us, it makes me very thankful that we live away from town!

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Mmmmm, mmmmm good! The other night Tom and I made this weight watcher recipe together and it was so delicious that I have to post it. It’s spicy, tasty and easy!

New Orleans Red Beans and Rice

If you are doing weight watchers, this is 6 points.

1 Cup Brown Rice
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper (I didn’t have one)
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 lb reduced sodium boneless ham steak, trimmed of all fat and cut into small pieces
1 15 1/2 oz can of red kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 teaspoon cajun seasoning (we added more)
1/2 cup reduced sodium chicken broth

1. Cook the rice according to package directions omitting butter

2. Heat oil in skillet over medium high heat. Add the onion, bell pepper and garlic; cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, 3-4 minutes. Add the ham and cook, stirring occasionally, until it starts to brown, 4-5 minutes. Add the beans and Cajun seasoning; cook, stirring occasionally, until heated through, 1-2 minutes. Add the broth and cook until the liquid is almost completely absorbed, about 2 minutes. Serve over rice.

**We used beef smoked sausage instead of the ham and it was great!!! Tom also added some shrimp at the end. I don’t like shrimp that much but since we added it at the end it didn’t flavor the whole dish. We both are already craving this again.

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Mom posted this under A Few Crumbs, but I am moving it here so that all can read it that may not read the comment section of the blog. Hope that was okay, Mom.

Hello to all of you who read Karen’s blog.

I have enjoyed reading her many posts and the many responses from all of you. There were times when she printed them off and brought them to me as I was unable to get to my computer.

I have appreciated all of your get well wishes you have posted. I believe your words of encouragement were part of my healing process. Most of all I have appreciated your prayers. Our wonderful God has seen me through this most difficult chapter of my life. I still have a ways to go, but life has returned to more “normal” living; however, I do appreciate to a greater degree the things we sometimes take for granted–life, health, strength, sunshine, birds, flowers, notes, grandchildren, a car ride, friends, family, a lunch in a restraunt, being able to plant a flower in a pot, going upstairs,cards, scripture that brought encouragement, window shopping, phone calls, visits with family and friends, on and on I could go naming God’s blessings. He has been so good to me!!

“I waited patiently for the Lord; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the Lord. Blessed is that man that maketh the Lord his trust, and respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies. Many, O Lord my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered. ” Psalm 40:1-5

I praise God for what he has done and what he is continuing to do!! I also praise him for the benefit you have been to me.

In His care,
Karen’s Mom

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I haven’t been able to post anything for the past few days, so here is a catch-up post with several things that have been going on.

First of all, there is good news on MOM!!

She went to the Dr. Last week and had her monthly checkup. It went well and her blood tests were good. She got her tumor marker count back and it went DOWN another point!! Yeah, God is so good!

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Friday was one of my last Mother’s Day Out days and Mom and I have been wanting to go to the Independence square and eat at Ophelia’s and window shop. So we took advantage of the day without chillin’s and went. They have several really cute shops with antiques and collectibles, they have a horse-drawn wagon that will take you on a tour of the historic sites and give some history (we didn’t do that one) and some good eating places. We had heard some great reports about Ophelia’s so we went there.

I have to say that I renamed this place “o’fool ya’s”

Here’s me and Mom, she is just looking quite chipper these days!

Here’s my lovely plate of “twisted quesedillas”

Ophelia’s is an uppity place on the corner with upscale food and atmosphere. Darkened room with high ceilings, rich woods, waiters in suits and a player piano greet you as you enter. They really cut their prices for lunchtime but even then it’s about $10.oo or so an entree. These quesedillas were really quite tasty. They had smoked chicken, cheese, peppers and cranberries in them. However, when we both finished our plates, Mom looked at me and said “Is that gonna fill you up?” I had to laugh because I was still hungry! She said she was too. We had a fun time, but were disappointed in “o’ fool ya’s”. Mom had a dirty fork, I had floaties in my glass, the food was quite expensive and we left wanting to go to McD’s and get a snack wrap. Oh well, life’s not all bad. At least the company was good!

We would have to give a two thumbs down for this restaurant. (unless you just want an expensive snack!)

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Here are some cute pics of our family walk on Friday night.

We love to take walks in the summer. It’s one of those things that you can do with little kids that is pretty easy and everyone has a good time. Let alone, the exercise is always good for everyone. However, I think that this year is going to be a little more difficult. Evely has found that she can walk and has determined that since she can walk, she will walk!

So the walk was very slow going once we gave in to her screams and let her out of the stroller.

She toddled along the road and squeeled with delight.

There is this wonderful big mudhole that always has water in it no matter what time of the year and the boys love to stop and throw rocks in it.

Wouldn’t you know that the princess had to be right in the middle of that one too!

Check out my rocks!

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Last but not least, I wanted to share a new blog spot to check out. My good friend Amber has started her blog called the “3 Little Whites”, she has some great stories that I am sure she will be posting. She is a wonderful mother and friend. She always keeps me laughing and I love how she always finds the positive in everything. She is truly an inspiration to me and I am sure you will enjoy checking in on her from time to time.

Click HERE to see the site.

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Holy Cow, I love this!

Check it out!! We have been so extremely blessed to have this gorgeous car seat show up on our doorstep! Literally. Tom came home late last night to find this huge box on our stoop with this truly awesome car seat inside.

It was a surprise from CARISSA!!!! (Thank you kind, loving, generous and encouraging girl!!) I cannnot believe that she did this for us. I feel so blessed. We had been looking for a carseat and just hadn’t decided on what to get Evely when this showed up. WOW! We would never have bought this nice of a seat. It has all the bells and whistles and even reclines. I have always looked at car seats for their practicality and functionality – never knew they could be soooo pretty too.

Evely truly looked like a princess sitting on her throne in it. I tried her out in it the first time and when I took her out she threw the biggest fit!

Here she is in the car!

This is what her little face looked like as we took her for a drive for the first time.

And of course the most valuable thing of all. . .THE BOX!

It has been altered to become a space ship.

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When I first had one child, Julian, I had all these pleasant thoughts of having him come home to my homemade cookies and taking him for icecream and an occasional candy. You know, all those things that kids enjoy – however, that just didn’t happen. He’s my “good eater”! He chooses carrots over candy almost any day. I am now very thankful for that! I don’t worry that he’s getting enough vegetables or fruit.

Then my number 2 child came and what a complete difference! Jaden would LIVE on candy, cookies, cake and pop if I let him. Sometimes I have to bribe him with a sucker to eat something healthy. He has no shut off button and can keep devouring until he falls over asleep. It’s so funny to have such opposite extremes in my house.

This last weekend we had the privilege of travelling down to Branson for a couple of days. Although it rained the whole weekend, I am glad we got to be together and get away. One of the things we did was visit the old fashioned Candy Store in Old Branson.

I gave each child a bag and let them sort of “have at it”. It was no surprise when Jaden grabbed handfuls and stuffed his bag while Julian carefully chose a few things that only covered the bottom of the sack.

One thing that Julian got was a candy necklace. He picked three of them and I asked him about it when they rang up. He said one was for each of them – including Evely. They wore them the rest of the day and came home with multi-colored stripes on their necks.

The next day we went to church and made Jaden leave the necklace in the car. On the way home he promptly put the thing on. Pretty soon Tom looked back only to be greeted by this sight. . .

Like I said, he can keep devouring until he falls over asleep!

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