Friday

Owl Face.

 
Hidden in the bark of an old tree, an owl face appears.
 

Watching with his wise old eyes.

I just had to take 'his' picture and share.


Attitude of gratitude:
~Woke up to temperatures in the low 50's the past few days.
I feel full of energy. Blessed.
~Found 2 great insulated cookie sheets, two new {with tags still on} evergreen wreaths for Christmas at a yard sale this morning.
Evidently, the good luck at yard sales continues.
~Bought a hydrangea... first one ever to plant. Hopes upon hopes that it thrives here and I have beautiful blossoms each summer for years and years. Also bought some coreopsis and black eyed susans

Tuesday

Blueberries, Muffins, Mysteries, and other thrifty finds.

 Have you read "Town in Blueberry Jam"?
It's just one book in a series of books from Berkley Prime Crime Mystery books.

I really enjoyed it!

Plus, I had blueberries on the mind.  We had just bought a huge container of blueberries at Costco.
Seemed like a fortuitous find; this book and the others in the series.
So, on Sunday, we mixed up a batch of delicious blueberry muffins {the best recipe I've ever tried... I might add.}

Noshing and reading ensued.


http://allrecipes.com/recipe/best-of-the-best-blueberry-muffins/detail.aspx

                                 {picture is also click-able to view original recipe and source}

Ingredients:
Original recipe makes 12 muffins                    
Directions
  1. Position rack in the middle of oven. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Spray the top of a muffin pan with non-stick coating, and line with paper liners.
  2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, 1 1/4 cups sugar and salt until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Mix together 1 3/4 cup of the flour and baking powder. Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk, mixing just until incorporated. Crush 1/4 of the blueberries, and stir into the batter. Mix the rest of the whole blueberries with the remaining 1/4 cup of the flour, and fold into the batter. Scoop into muffin cups.
  3.  Sprinkle tops lightly with sugar.
   I was lucky enough to buy all the books in this series at the same yard sale.
And the price.... just a mere 50 cents a piece.
{Also found the Scentsy warmer for just $1.00}

I've been reading and reading since Saturday.
I am now well into the second book : "Town In Lobster Stew"
The books are fun reads, and clean reads. 
Another thrifty find, is the shorter plant stand.
Actually the tall stand was a yard sale find as well, found last year.
Who knows, before the summer's out, I just might luck upon another one.
I'd like a few for the patio, as well.

And.. a wreath.
A Fall wreath, for a dollar.  Couldn't beat that.
I've found that if there is something that I cannot use here at
Mill Hill Meadow, then it is something that Spencer {our son} can use at Dunravin {his home's name}.
So, it all works out.

One more thrifty find that I scored this past weekend... a nice sized wall sign.
I quite like it, and have decided that it should hang in our entry.
It's a nice welcome to our home.
Sets a nice tone.

Sooner than later, the yard sales are going to end.
The summer is quickly drawing to an end, the kids are gearing up for school, and classes and football are about to start at the local college.
Still....... overall , it's been a good year for thrifty finds.  Can't complain.

In my research on the Berkley Prime Crime Mysteries I found another series that sounds intriguing and fun to read.
It is the "Farmers Market Mysteries", by Paige Shelton.
Have any of you read that series?? 
I think I shall order the first few books, so that they are on hand, once I finish this current series.
Also... the same author did a series called "Country Cooking School Mysteries". That also sounds like a good series to read.

Attitude of gratitude:
~I'm grateful for multi grain bread toast, and fresh apple cider from the Big Red Barn.
Perfectly wonderful breakfast on this fine August day.
~I'm grateful that I've made pretty good progress on my goal to clean out both freezers. The kitchen fridge freezer and the deep freeze.  And, bless my family..... for they've been such good sports about eating my 'Clean out the freezer menu'!  Yay!! looking forward to getting both freezers stocked again, and organized for the winter months.







Sunday

~~ MILL HILL MEADOW ~~

It's an important thing to me.
Having a home, means it has a name.
 Any old place can be a house, but a home has a name,
 a sense of belonging to the family that lives in it.

We name our children, our pets, we even name our vehicles.
It just seems right to name our homes.

We started this tradition many years ago.
Recalling memories in " DD Shanty", or "Promise House", or "Crabapple Cottage".

This house is not a homestead cottage, nor a Victorian home desperately in need of renovation.
Nor is it a city home, or a big old Farmhouse.

 This home is in the country.
 A smallish city of about 6000 folks.
It is a recently built home, in a newer neighborhood.  Just 9 houses on our street.
Our subdivision is named "Mill Hill", named because of the hills above our home, and an old mill that was built along the creek bank.

There were many names for this house that were considered: names having to do with cottages... a love of mine, names having to do with daisies, poppies, windy mornings, mountains views, elk views.... etc...

In the end, we all decided that Mill Hill Meadow, is the perfect name for our house.

Our home.

Paying tribute to the mill that once was at the bottom of the hill, also paying tribute to the beautiful meadows that are all around us. 

Our Mill Hill Meadow, will be our forever home.

We wish for laughter, bountiful gardens, lush borders, stories on the porch, Christmas' filled with magic, and the smells of gingerbread.
We wish for puzzles sitting on the old card table... added to piece by piece.
Yatzee, and Uno played on Sunday nights around the kitchen table.
Morning breezes blowing down off the mountains, and through the meadows.

Wishes for many, many years of blessed life... filled with happiness, health and warm memories.

We are home.