The Last Monday in April Ramble and Roll..

Happy Monday everyone!  

Welcome to the Blessed Hearth!  

So glad you dropped by.. 

I am once again apologizing for taking so long to get back here.. 

I am thankful to you girls who leave me wee notes reminding me that you are patiently waiting.. smile.. 

We are all fine and feel so blessed to live in this dear province of New Brunswick.. 

Thus far the virus has been low in our part of Canada and restrictions are going to slowly lifted as long as we all behave ourselves and take care to do the precautions... 

Life will be different from now on I am thinking but perhaps we have all learned some valuable lessons and will appreciate life so much more.. 

Our hearts go out to all who are suffering in other parts of our world.. 

Especially to our neighbours to the south of us.. 

U. S. A. has been in our prayers each day... 

Also our sister province of Nova Scotia are in deep mourning for their slain loved ones... 

Such a tragedy! 

 Our minds can scarcely comprehend the loss!

Praying for God's peace and comfort for them... 

Well, I am on a mission today to get this blog accomplished so I best be getting to it... 

A ramble and roll it shall be.. smile.. 

We will start in the kitchen with the peanut butter cookies...

My friend Faye gave me her recipe.. 

She is a baker extraordinaire! 

She used to own a Bakery and these cookies are excellent.. 

Peanut Butter Cookies.. 

1 c. butter

1 c. brown sugar

1 c. white sugar

2 eggs

1 c. peanut butter

3 cups of flour

2 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt 

Mix up as for cookies 

375 degrees F. 

12 - 15 minutes.. 

Terry loved these.. 

I made big ones like my friend Barb makes.. 

I think they look so professional!  grin. 

Then I packed them in bags of 4 and put them right in the freezer.. 

A quick treat to take on a drive or when we are watching a movie or some such thing..

Then as I am trying to eat healthy most of the time.. 

I found this delicious and awesome salad on You Tube.. 

Jew Salad.. 

It does take some work getting the veggies all sliced.. 

But so worth the bother.. 

It makes a gallon bottle full of salad.. 

This lasted us a whole week and I gave a jar to my Mom... 

She loved it too.. 

I actually liked it for a snack... 

Very satisfying.. 

It does have sugar in it but when you think of how much salad you get then I don't think it amounts to much sugar per serving.. 

This is the recipe on the You Tube.. 

Here is the link.. HERE

And.. 

I found this one there too.. 

This is so good... 

Not good for you probably but satisfying and frugal.. 

It was something they served during the depression era when times were tough and not much money.. 

But they had potatoes and hot dogs were cheap.. 

I can't wait to serve this to our grandsons.. grin.. 

Here is the recipe.. 

As you can see my cooking is not exactly what it should be at the moment!  But this too shall pass and we will get eating more normal soon, I hope.. 

I honestly did not have any of these but Terry bugged me for a couple of weeks and I finally caved in.. grin.. 

We called them chocolate macaroons when I was a kid... 

My sister and I made them often... 

These go in the freezer also and really they are good frozen too.. 

Ask Terry!  grin.. 

And like the rest of the world I am baking bread...

The no knead bread I have been preaching about for years.. 

Now I bake it mostly in cast iron... 

Rolling along here.. 

Have been doing sprouts all along.. 

Our lettuce supply has not been great the last month... 

But sprouts are a very cheap and most nutritional substitute.. 

I love them on my hippie sandwiches that my friend Dawn taught me many years ago... 

I also love them on my Junkee Soup... 

I just tried to write the recipe for you but it is literally a pinch of this and a spoon of that.. 

So.. 

I will try to put the recipe to paper this week when I make it.. 

It is a broth, chicken or shrimp, rice noodle, green onions and ginger kind of soup with sprouts on top.. 

Soooo good!!  

Next time.. 

Just rambling along sharing our days with you as usual.. 

Terry is trying to get wood out for the next winter or two.. 

I will not let him go alone and be there with the power saw so I go and sit in the truck and do my thing.. 

I know I have shared this on here before .. 

But that is what we do some days.. 

Only for a few hours and I find it easy to while away the time.. 

Some days I make a wee type of craft, do a small Bible Study, crochet or read.. (my fave),,, 

I read this book for the second time and loved loved it.. 

Once again! 

It was so fitting for the last month of staying home which I love anyway and doing the homemaking thing kind of 1800s style.. 

eh? 

Homemade bread, candles and soup on the stove.. 

I actually ordered the next two that she wrote from Amazon and am looking forward to reading them.. 

Have you found any extra time to read.. 

I know a lot of you girls are homeschooling but if you are like me you find time to read somewhere in your day... eh!  

Rolling along.. 

We had Easter too since I posted last.. 

Imagine!  

It was just the two of us and we had a large organic chicken instead of ham as we did not want to go into the supermarket.. 

I love ham but it was a good dinner.. 

Just so different from years past but hopefully next year...

Rolling on...  

I have been trying my best to clean corners and closets and such.. 

Did our living room ... 

Took me ages.. 

Lots of stuff!  

Tried to weed some of it out but honestly I still love it all!  

A lot of it has been given to me from generations past.. 

And I cherish that fact!  

When I look at old silver and Flow Blue dishes then I think of my Great Aunt Emily... 

Old china Tea pots and lovely old dishes from sweet Julia.. 

The sofa table and dear things from Terry's cousin Marilyn.. 

How I miss these dear souls!  

Lovely treasures from my Mother and so on.. 

I choose to decorate our home with heritage... 

I have read where the things we surround ourselves with tell our story.... smile.. 

I saw a beautiful idea on the web.. 

It was a gorgeous garland of roses... 

So... 

I bought a bundle of the best I could find.. 

And tried to do my thing with them.. 

It just didn't come up to the standard that I had seen.. 

so.... 

I had redone the Dining Room table (from Aunt Emily) with an old tea set and linens... 

But just felt it needed something else.. 

Wasn't sure what... 

I was kind of tired of the previous flowers and such... 

But this did the trick.. 

For now anyway!  

We all have different tastes... 

This is mine for now... 

Me and old dishes!  sheesh!  grin..  

Rambling along.. Almost finished.. 

We of course go to the farm.. 

We are allowed!   

No one there except the stray cat and a ground hog... grin..

There is still snow on the Kent Hills.. 

As of yesterday... 

We hope things will be good enough so we will feel like we can stay at the farm this summer.. Some days there and some here perhaps.. 

We shall see....

I went upstairs to see what the bedrooms needed doing.. 

Brought home bags of bedding and laundered it and put it out on the line one of our lovely windy days.. 

All washed and ready... 

Packed and taken back till whenever... 

Lots of old stuff there, too!  grin.. 

Had a couple of country drives, of course.. 

Mostly in Albert County.. 

Always a few of those dreaded mud roads... sigh! 

He just can't help himself... seriously!  

Have also been trying to do some crafting.. 

Made this for a special girl...

Dug around in the basement and found a pretty old craft from my bye gone era days..  

fixed it up a bit and hung her outside the door.. smile..

While cleaning the living room I came across an album full of my grandmother's handkerchiefs..  

I wondered if my first cousins would like one and got in touch with them.. 

Most of them did so packaged them off and sent them in the mail.. 

So love my cousins!   

Just a little memory of our Gram... 

Well dear friends this is my ramble and roll for April.... 

Slow but sure!  grin..  

I do want to share some good news.. 

A lot of you girls have been with me for so long and probably feel you know our dear grandsons.. 

Well.. 

This is Matthew ... 

Our second oldest grandson and Shonda and Dave's oldest... 

He has just finished his Electrical Engineering years at UNB... 

And... 

Was accepted into Dalhousie School of Medicine!  

We will hopefully have a doctor in the house!  smile.. 

God is just so good!  

We are so proud of all of our grandsons and  celebrate all their accomplishments and hard work... 

And thankful!  So thankful!  

Love them all so much...  

So for now, lovies... 

I will say goodnight.. 

Keep safe and I pray all goes well in your world.. 

Where ever you may be.. 

Thank you for visiting and I look forward to your notes you leave me.. 

Here or on Face Book and so love that you are following my Instagram... 

God bless... 

Hugs from New Brunswick, Canada... 

A Sunday Night in June...

Good Evening my dears.. 

So happy to have you visit the blog again on this Sunday Evening  in June... 

My how the time is flying by, eh! 

Soon Summer will be announced and we feel as though it should only be Spring.. 

Or I do at least.. 

Such cool weather but everything is so lush and green which is lovely.. 

The fiddleheads have come and gone and now everywhere is blossomed in Dandelions... 

I canned around 36 jars of Fiddleheads for the coming winter.. 

So happy to have them done and stored away.. 

And I did one batch of Dandelion Jelly.. 

I put it up in these small 125 gram bottles for a change this year.. 

They are a lovely size for gifting as many have not tried it before.. 

It tastes like honey to me and is wonderful in gift baskets .. 

It is nice over cream cheese for crackers or as a glaze on ham or pork.. 

I picked a bunch more this afternoon to dry a bit and then put in olive oil for salves and such.. 

Anyway.. 

We have been visiting the farm the last couple of weeks and slowly getting things done.. 

As I said in the last post Terry has the walls and woodwork all painted in the kitchen .. 

I love the colour of the walls and the woodwork painted white.. 

The new old stove is installed and I love it.. 

Even bought a new dishtowel to hang on the oven door.. smile.. 

There is also a mat to go with it but the floors have not been scrubbed and waxed yet.. 

As you can see the old cupboard is painted but Terry still has to put a second coat on the doors and fix a drawer.. 

Then I will show you it all.. 

You can see the lovely Babbling Brook colour though.. 

It does go well with the fabrics I showed you last post.. 

The sewing projects will have to wait for a bit but soon.. 

We have a few lunches up there but nothing too fance.. 

Veggie Pita Pizza is one that I go to when in a rush... 

Wanted to mention this old book to you book lovers.. 

I really enjoyed this guy's writing.. 

The book was written some time ago before a lot of electricity and such but still very relevant today.. 

It takes place in Maine which is so much like New Brunswick as far as weather and farmlands go... 

The top pic that is above is showing you my new kitchen valance for over the sink.. 

I found it at a Thrift shop.. 

It has daisies and the edging which you can't see is in the Babbling Brook colour, too... 

I also have a new dish drain, dish soap and wood handled scrubbing brush..  

Our sweet son who lives out west and could not be home for Mother's Day sent me dollars... 

He said he wanted his Dad to take me to some really nice place to eat and buy something nice for myself... smile.. 

So .. 

We did go out to eat and these are the something nice I bought myself.. 

I have been looking for a dish drain like this for ages.. 

On Amazon and EBay and such but they were so expensive.. 

I went into Home Sense to buy some Dish Soap because I love lovely dish soaps ... 

This one is Lavender Thyme... Smells delicious!  

I used a whole bottle of regular Dawn doing all the washing up there so now for the Summer I wanted something nice.. 

Well.. 

There was the Drain Board I have been looking for.. 

And a wood handled dish scrubbing brush..

They are so hard to find..  

So dear Dustin this is what your Mom considers something nice for herself... 

Oh and there was enough to buy the fabrics I showed you last post, too.. 

All in all I enjoyed the gift immensely.. 

Our other sweet son, Trevor bought me a gorgeous big patio planter that I love and picked me fiddleheads galore.. 

That was so great and Shonda brought me gifts from Paris... 

Everything French... 

Soap, French Linen, Mustards and such... 

I don't usually go on about my gifts on here but where I was showing you the farm stuff I didn't want not to mention the other gifts... 

You know what I am trying to say.. grin.. 

I stayed home all this week except for a couple of flying visits to the farm as I had so much to do here.. 

Tomorrow morning I am getting my eye surgery done in my right eye and then in a couple of weeks I get my left one done.. 

So I wanted to be caught up here a bit.. 

It means we will be slower getting to the farm then we hoped but all in due time.. 

Terry has been working on the gardens.. 

We have our new raised beds up and ready and guess what? 

All of my Lavender survived and are back.. 

I was so happy about that.. 

It is still too early to plant the garden itself but he does have stuff in the raised beds.. 

He loves gardening much more then painting!  sigh.. grin.. 

I am in the Sun Room here at home writing this post and thought I would show you a couple of my plants in here. 

I will soon be putting them outside on the patio for the summer.. 

I guess this is all for tonight my luvs.. 

I do want to welcome the new followers of the blog and those of you who have liked the Face Book page.. 

This is us! 

Taken a couple of years ago but basically the same.. 

Just two retired folks living a simple life .. 

Thankful to still be together after all these years and able to enjoy it all.. 

God has been good to us!  

Reading this blog you will note that God is our refuge and strength... 

Our lives centre around Him...

Thanks to you dear faithful readers and for your lovely comments.. 

Will check in again soon and hope to hear from you.. 

God bless.... 

Wednesday Evening in April...

Good Evening everyone.. 

Welcome to the Blessed Hearth on this Wednesday ..  

It is a very rainy week here in New Brunswick..  

The rain has been falling steadily here for several days and our province is once again fighting flood waters.. 

Our capital city is in a bad state as is many parts of our province. 

We are blessed to live in an area that is not near the St. John River and is on high ground... 

Praying for these communities that suffer so during this type of Winter with lots of snow in the north then so much rain in the Spring. 

How are you all doing?  

Did you have a grand Easter.. 

We had a nice one but quiet non the less.. 

We did get to St. John and we all attended an Easter drama that Shonda and Dave were in..

 All except for our youngest who lives in the west as you know.. 

Miss him so much during these holidays especially... 

After the drama we all gathered at Shonda and Dave's house and had a lovely visit and food, of course.. 

And our gorgeous grandsons!

They are just so much fun!  

David had a big birthday so we were able to celebrate that also... 

Things have been sort of slow around here lately.. 

The weather is not helping.. 

Although it is Spring except for a few lovely days it seems that it is quite dreary... 

We went out one day looking for a few pussy willows for Easter.. 

We spied them in this ditch.. 

It was kind of neat since they were on Terry's old farm where he grew up.. 

I think I will keep some of them for awhile.. 

They are lovely and big this Spring... 

We were out to the farm on Monday and it was so nice and warm.. 

Cloudy but the brook was running and the wind was blowing.. 

It is still not very green but it won't be long... 

It is amazing how drab it is one week and you turn around twice and the place is full of dandelions and green grass.. 

I went through the house making plans for moving out there for the summer months.. 

We hope to do some painting inside before we get there.. 

I would like to paint the walls a creamy colour.. 

And the curtains need changed and so on... smile..

I wish the kitchen was this clean now but it needs some work, shall we say.. 

Soon... 

The gardens are ploughed and will soon be dry and ready for planting.. 

Our garlic weathered the winter and is up already as is a few herbs.. 

Charlie was ecstatic to be there! 

Just runs around like a puppy and drinking from the spring.. 

Although, he keeps looking back to make sure we are not leaving him there.. smile.  

I love this season the best of all of them.. 

What is your fave season?

Here is a sweet pic of our daughter and son in law with their Easter drama costumes on.. 

So cute!  

Terry and I had a dinner with Mom and my Step father but on one night we had a meal just for the two of us.. 

Roast Beef for a change from Ham and Turkey.. 

It was lovely.. 

But next year hopefully we will return to a ham dinner with all of our family here .. 

I missed that actually although it was a lot less work.. grin.. 

We did have lovely Easter service at our church.. 

We shared the Lord's supper and that is always so special.. 

Just thankful that I know the risen Saviour and He's in my heart today... 

Do you know Him, too?  

He makes life so worth the living.. 

What I so love about Jesus is that He is as close as the mention of His Name.. 

We just need to whisper his Name in prayer and He is there and available.. 

And faithful! 

Meeting our needs and comforting our hearts.. 

Like the old chorus goes.. 

Where would I be without Jesus.. 

Where would I spend eternity.. 

Lost in  a world full of sorrow.. 

Without Jesus ... 

Where would I be?  

Just wanted to share with you a bit tonight. 

And now on we go...  

My Mom turned 85 on the 15th... 

We took her and Gerald out for dinner to their favourite place.. 

St. Huberts... 

Then I wanted to make her a little somthing .. 

This is their cat Mable.. 

They both love her so much.. 

So... 

I made this pillow for her birthday .... 

Not a great job but it is the thought that counts and she liked it... 

It is amazing how fast time goes.. 

I remember when Gram (her mother) was 85.  

So many sweet years have passed... 

Praying we will have many more with her... 

This was a stir fry I made for tonight's supper.. 

One piece of steak goes a long way in a stir fry.. smile.. 

Anyway... 

Thank you all so much for dropping by.. 

As I said we will be going to the farm soon and then I will have something to chat with you about.. 

The first pic up top is one of our meals out there.. 

Anyway, dear hearts have a great week and I look forward to hearing from you all.. 

Your notes are precious to me.. 

Take care of yourselves and your sweet families and we will meet here again soon, Lord willing..

Hugs..