Several weeks ago Stephen was contacted about preaching at a church out of state. We went this past weekend. We drove up on Friday (it was a ten-hour drive), attended a gospel sing Saturday night, had church and a fellowship dinner on Sunday, and drove home yesterday. We were also able to meet up with some very dear friends that we haven’t seen since we left Indiana.

Even though it was busy, it was such a blessing to be there. The church took very good care of us, and it was so nice to meet new friends and fellow believers in Christ.

They were so exhausted

We usually do our traveling at night so the kids will sleep, but this time we drove during the day. Wow. I love seeing the mountains, and it was a delight to be able to drive through the Smoky Mountains both days.

There was very little down time this weekend, yet we came away so refreshed. Church was wonderful, and seeing the mountains just reminded me over and over again what a powerful Creator God is.

Anna crawled into a suitcase Friday morning. It looked as if she was saying, “Don’t forget me!” The boys wanted me to take a picture of them too, and I’m glad I did.

We had a wonderful time in the house of the Lord this morning. Stephen was asked to preach at a different church today, and it was wonderful. I love hearing my husband preach. I can’t wait to see what God has planned for tonight!

Anna finally has enough hair to put her hair in piggie tails. I love it!

Sunday: fellowship at church

Monday: Creamy Ziti (from the Saving Dinner cookbook)

Tuesday: tacos

Wednesday: tilapia, brown rice

Thursday: grilled chicken breast over tossed salads (this may change)

Friday: pizza night – we’ll probably pick it up somewhere this week

Saturday: dinner with friends

The meals without veggies listed we’ll just decide then which veggie to eat from the freezer.

Breakfasts are smoothies, eggs, oatmeal, biscuits, and scones.

Lunches are sandwiches, wraps, macaroni and cheese, and leftovers.

Snacks are cheese, baby carrots, nuts, and fresh fruit.

You can read more menu plans over at Orgjunkie.com.

Today we had a fellowship at church after the morning service. One of the things I made was pound cake. It was a half batch of my mother-in-law’s pound cake recipe, made with all butter and 15 quail eggs (it’s really fun to make a full recipe, and then announce that I made a 30-egg pound cake!).

It didn’t cool long enough before I took it out of the pan, so it came out in three pieces. It didn’t look nice enough to serve as is, so I cubed it and served it with a mixed berry sauce (made with frozen mixed berries, a little sugar, and cornstarch to thicken). Hardly anybody took any at church today.

That’s fine. There was more for us to enjoy at home. It was absolutely delicious. And since it was only half-sized, there’s less left over for us to eat too much of.

Making Anna’s peasant dresses has been so much fun. They are easy and sew up quickly. I followed the tutorial at indietutes, shortened the bodice (by almost half), and added a gathered skirt. It took a little more measuring and some trial and error, but I’m pleased with the results.

The knit dress I made last weekend washed up so soft that it looks really comfortable. It looks so adorable on Anna (not that I’m biased, right?).

Most people who know me in real life know how much I LOVE coffee. I could drink it all day long, but try to limit my caffeine since Anna gets so wired from it.

Last week our coffeemaker died. We still had an espresso machine, but it just wasn’t the same. We talked about getting one locally, but decided to order one from Amazon instead. We chose to get a more inexpensive coffeemaker so that we could pay for it with gift cards we’d been saving. Thanks to Swagbucks, the coffeepot was completely free.

It finally arrived today. As soon as Stephen got home from work, I made some decaf. It tasted soooooo good!

Saturday was one of those rare days when I was actually able to get some sewing done.

First, I made Anna a new gown. Her pajamas are too warm for summer and she’s about to outgrow them anyway. The fabric is a very delicate knit with pastel stripes – Stephen’s grandma gave it to me not long ago specifically for Anna.

Later I was able to start some pillow shams. The throw pillows on our couch are starting to look awful. I figured some new covers would be enough, rather than completely replacing the pillows. Here’s what I have done so far. They need a border before I actually make them into shams, but at least I was able to get a little bit done.

This one I used all the music-themed fabrics.

This one is my favorite. It’s quite a bit busier than I realized when I laid out the squares, but that’s ok. One day I’d like to make a quilt out of only blues and whites. . .I think that would be so pretty.

Instead of cutting any new fabric (or scraps, for that matter), I used squares left over from the first quilt I ever made. I couldn’t find where I’d shared a picture of the quilt here before, so here’s a picture I took of it years ago.

There were enough squares left from that quilt to use for this one:

(You can see another photo of the quilt top here)

It’s funny how many different projects I’ve made out of those squares. There’s quite a few more left too, but I don’t have specific plans for them yet.

It was starting to thunder yesterday afternoon when we left for church. On the way home, we noticed a lot of debris in the road and many branches down. We wondered if a tornado had gone through, and then decided one probably hadn’t. The closer we got to our house, the worse the destruction was. A quarter mile from home, we saw a mobile home that had a trampoline on its roof. We weren’t sure what to expect after that.

We passed the electric company truck on our way in, as well as a fire truck. We were getting really concerned about what had happened while we were gone. According to our neighbor, a fierce thunderstorm came up really quickly, and was over almost as quickly. But the damage it left behind. . .

This Bradford pear tree has lost limbs in the past, but this one landed all of six feet from the house. I am beyond thankful that it didn’t hit the house. It was so close.

Several trees were down around where we keep our dog. His doghouse was thrown into the woods but he is ok.

Our woods are an absolute mess. There are toys and things thrown everywhere. One of the doors was torn off our old shed, as well as most of the shutters off the front of our house. Our neighbor found one of our shutters in her woods.

There are trees down all through our property. Stephen and I had talked a few times about making a clearing in the woods, but never did anything about it. We definitely have that clearing now.

Stephen had just started taking up the fence around our chicken yard last week. One of the reasons was a huge dead tree that was by it. If it broke, it would have fallen right across the fence. Interestingly enough though, that huge tree wasn’t touched by the wind.

There’s a log on top of the chicken coop, but it isn’t damaged for the most part. The wind blew the door open though, so a lot of our chickens are loose.

I couldn’t help but take this picture – even with all the damage, it was still a beautiful morning.

I am absolutely amazed at how God protected us. We were in a safer building, and in an area that didn’t get hit as badly as where we live. Nothing important was really damaged. God even let all of our animals be ok. :)

We have a ton of work ahead of us as Stephen estimates there are a good 50 trees down on our property. Those trees will become a lot of firewood though – looks like we’re set for this winter.

More than anything though, I’m just glad we’re all ok and that nothing important was really damaged.