Please Pray for Andrew

Melanie of Bella Mella has a special prayer request. Last week, on Friday, she found out that her twelve year old son Andrew has three lesions on his brain. Please pray for this family as this week they will give them the prognosis and treatment. I have a button on the side of my blog that you can go to and can read her story.
Having a twelve year old daughter this really hit home.
I am praying!

Sweet Melissa's Fresh Peach Muffins

This week our Sweet Melissa recipe came from JoVan of the Givens Chronicles.

She choose Fresh Peach Muffins.
This recipe included a cup of fresh diced peaches
and orange zest.
They were delicious.
I did think they were a bit heavy and a little dry but they were still eaten by my family.I love anything with fresh fruit in it.
This is something we will try again.

Spirit Night

Spirit Night was on Thursday. This is the night , after 3 weeks of school ,that the band, foot ball team, cheer leaders and dance team,and the other fall sports like golf,cross country, volley ball,tennis,and soccer teams are introduced to the school

DeAnn runs cross country and they had the wildest t-shirts. She is one of 4 9th grade girls.

The band also did a low key performance of their new show. It was awesome. You see DeAnn playing the Clarinet.

Darci plays the flute.
Do you see the precision of their steps.
Awesome!

And Denae started cheer leading this week.

They got their uniforms but won't put them on until next week at the first season football game.

It's going to be a busy but fun year for the girls.

Mom's Banana Apple Bread

Today's Sweet Melissa Recipe is Mom's Banana Apple Bread
chosen by Joy of Hot Oven, Warm Heart, http://hotovenwarmheart.wordpress.com/
You should go over and check out her blog for beautiful food.It's amazing.
You first saute the apples in butter, brown sugar and cinnamon and vanilla.

Let them set aside to cool.

You make the batter and then add in a 1/4 cup of orange juice.

1 1/4 cup mashed bananas

Then you stir in the apple mixture.

I was nervous as to how this would come out but I was not disappointed.
It was delicious.
Those big chunks of apples made the bread so moist and added such a nice flavor to the bread.

This is a bread I will make again.
Thanks Joy for choosing.

Fields of Kansas

Kansas has lots of flat, farm land. There all kinds of crops to be seen.

Hay fields.

Grain Fields

Beans

But my favorite of all is this yellow field!

Big beautiful Sunflowers!

I love sunflowers!

Summer Reading

I found all these books at a church garage sale this summer for .25 cents each.
Can you believe it! That bottom book alone by Beth Moore had a sticker on it of $21.00.
I felt like I hit the jackpot. I had my summer reading list because
I had not read any of these books.
I just finished reading the book; Finding Anna . It was really good! It is a book written about the late HG Spafford and how he come to write the song "It is well with my soul". It is a story about the life and tragedies of one family and how they kept a strong faith and a story about the hymns of great. Just a simple book that I would have never picked up but a powerful story.
I hope you found some good reading for the summer.

First days of School

This was the first week of school. I can hardly believe that my girls are in 7th, 9th and 10th grades. I usually get a picture of them together but because they all have such different schedules now I couldn't do that.

Denae was the first to go and we couldn't get her picture by the usual mailbox
because it was raining and dark.They have the 7th graders come a day early so they can learn where everything is without all the hustle/Bustle of the older Middle School kids.

Darci...the much older Sophomore!

DeAnn
This year she was picked to be in Student Council.
She assures us that this will keep her from getting beat up as a Freshmen!

The second day it stopped raining long enough for me to get a picture of Denae by the mailbox.

Have a great year Girls!

Psalm 1:1-3

Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers.But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water which yields it fruit in season and whole leaf does not wither. whatever he does prospers. Psalm 1:1-3

Summer Vacation

This was where I spent my vacation last week.
We borrowed a pop-up trailer from some sweet friends in our church and traveled to Devils Den State park in Arkansas and spent 4 days.
We met Dusty's parents with their motor home so we did have some amenities like a microwave and refrigerator.
Our camper did have an air conditioner that we enjoyed in the heat of the day when we were not swimming. It was the first time that we have camped in a couple of years and The girls really did like it .
My favorite part was every night the deer would come out and graze near our camper. It was fun listening to all the animals and bugs buzzing at night.

Denae had fun driving home with Grandpa in the RV.

We explored several caves.

We even got his parents to go on a hike with us.

The girls heading down into a tight cave.They loved this adventure.

At night we played games , made smores and had a really good time talking about dating with my girls. The last day we took a four hour float trip on a river in Noel, Missouri.
We had a different but fun vacation.
The first of July I took a vacation to Arkansas to visit my mom. She is one of 13 kids but now has 2 remaining brothers and one sister left. They meet every Friday at the local McDonald's and have breakfast . I took the girls and we got caught up.

It is fun being with family.
We had some really good vacations this summer.

Flowers

Lately it seems that all I have posted about has been food.
My husband says it looks like all we do is eat.
Well today I wanted to share with you a cute little vignette of flowers on my back porch.
I love flowers!
I am off this weekend to go camping with my family.
Hope you enjoy your last few days before summer is over.

Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies

This weeks Sweet Melissa's Recipe is Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies and was chosen by Stephanie of "Ice Cream Before Dinner".
They were under the After-School Snack Section. Something a kid would really enjoy with a glass of milk. I agreed.

They were simple to make and very soft and delicious.
I was nervous about baking them the entire 10 minutes for fear they would
burn but in the end that was what was needed.
Make your cookie dough, roll into balls and press down with a fork and then bake.
Delicious and easy!