~ New~ Harvest Homestead ~

  'New' to me, but certainly not 'new' beans.
These are Fremont Beans.
These are heirloom beans that date back to the Fremont people.
They are a 'new to me' bean that is from a local 'new to me' company: https://heirloomsandmore.com/

Near our new town, there is a great farm that grows wonderful beans, and produce, and herbs, etc. 

They are sold at a farmers market, which is where I bought the beans in bulk.

I made 'refried' beans with these beans and made them in the Instant Pot.
I added onion, garlic, chili powder, cumin, and a little cilantro. Once they were cooked tender, I blended them with the stick blender and seasoned them to taste with sea salt and pepper.

We had company for dinner Sat. and we served these beans along with chicken street tacos and they were a huge hit!

I'm so happy to have found this great farm and have linked the website above.

New views.

The picture below is overlooking our new backyard.
We are on just over a half an acre. 

About half of the backyard is grass (newly hydro~seeded)

and the other half of the backyard will be a potager style garden. 

My sweet husband has the tiller out and is working the soil.

Our house is located in a newer subdivision that was built on an old farm.

In fact, the folks that owned the farm live just a hop and skip away, and they are very happy and proud to have developed this subdivision.

 One of my favorite things about our new house is the nightly sunset shows. 
Every night, we have the most spectacular sunsets.

 We placed our wood swing on the patio, and it has become our new nightly routine to swing and watch the sunset.

New name for our home: Harvest Homestead

 New:
 ~We've planted 6 new trees. 
~My sweet husband has continued to place the privacy slats into the fence.
~ We have a 'new' clothesline. A friend was moving and offered to let us have their clothesline. It's now installed and I just need to give it a new coat of paint and new line, then it will be perfect.
~New this week: I pulled my car into the garage... hee hee.. finally after weeks of putting things away and emptying boxes out of the garage, I was able to make room for my car... Yay!

Wishing you all a happy week. 
I hope you are all enjoying the last weeks of summer.

~This breaks all previous records! ~

Sold?!

The sign was up and within 2 hours, we 'sold' our house?!
Crazy~good!
Saturday, we put signs up and then ran a few errands, we bought a few groceries, then it was back home again to do weekend projects.
My sweet husband had the garage door open and was doing some garage stuff, and a car pulled in front and the prospective buyer asked about our house. 
After showing the prospective buyer around, they put an offer on our house! 

The title company has the earnest money check already and the contracts are all signed.

We feel gobsmacked!
Previously, we have sold other homes in what we thought was lightning fast ~ ~ 3 days. 
However, this sale blew that old record out of the water.

As everyone knows that has sold a property, or house, etc. it isn't final until it's final, so we are taking this in stride, and praying that everything works out and we close as planned. 
 If there is a glitch, we feel confident that we have two or more possible backup offers.

Whatever happens, it will be the Lord's will. 
We never have been the type that pounds a square peg into a round hole, and we aren't going to start that kind of nonsense now.
Praying continually that our Heavenly Father guides our decisions and blesses us with the power of discernment to know what is right for us.

Once again, I want to thank everyone for their encouragement and positivity! 
Y'all are the best!!!

~ Floating away ~

 Well maybe we don't have an ocean of water yet, but we have been getting a ton of rain here! 

 We took a drive down by the farm and there was so much water in the fields. The water has filled the culverts and irrigation ditches and overflowed onto some of the roads.
  Today, it is still raining. 
I'll take the rain over snow, any day though. 
Still, it feels as though if the rain continues, we're going to float away **grin**.

(normally, these are grazing fields and do not have standing water on them)

It seems that everyone has had a crazy weather winter. 
I am ready for spring! 
I have looked for signs of spring...daffodils or crocus starting to push through the soil, but so far, no signs yet.

I'm still working on downsizing, and packing things that we want to keep.
Keeping in mind that once we buy a new house, that home will more than likely be a much smaller home than we have currently, so I am thinking about that when choosing what to keep.
I am also on a self-imposed Pantry/Freezer challenge. We have two freezers, plus the freezer in our fridge, and I am trying to empty them by cooking from what we have and using our foodstuffs. 
Because we are empty nesters, it has been a challenge and I have had to use my creativity.
 One roast will feed us for several meals, though we don't want to have the same thing night after night.
Last night I made spaghetti squash with a southwest/taco topping. Because I have plenty of meat left, and tortillas etc. tonight I am making enchiladas.

Attitude of Gratitude:
~Grateful that our commuter car fired a warning shot before giving up the ghost, and that we were able to buy a new commuter car that is perfect for what we need.  
~Thankful that our kids still need us...every now and again  *smile**.
 * Helped with an oil change
 *Helped install a new toilet
 *Helped temporarily with a monetary concern.

~Goodness, gracious! Life clips along at a pretty quick speed! ~

How is it that time just seems to speed up, the older I get?? 

Before I know it, a day is gone, then a week, then a month, and so forth. 

I never had any intentions of being MIA from blogging so long, but then that time thingy happened, and before I knew it "poof", months had passed by.

Wonderful, amazing, miraculous life has been happening around here.

The above picture is from Waikiki, Hawaii. 

My darling husband and I just returned from a lovely and wonderful trip to Hawaii, to celebrate our 30th anniversary!!

Our amazing kids got together and surprised us with the trip! They paid for and arranged everything! The flights, hotel, excursions, etc... 

All we had to do, is pack a bag. 

We have been so incredibly blessed, and the blessings just keep coming. 

I feel truly humbled by the blessings that have been showered upon us.

A huge blessing is that we are going to be first time grandparents!!!!!!

Yep.. we finally get to join the grandparents club, after waiting for years.

Our darling daughter in law is due in July. This is an older picture, of course.
She is really good to update her pictures, but I don't have an instagram account, and that is how she usually does it.
We got the happy news about becoming grandparents on Christmas day.
The last present that was opened was one that our son gave me. It was a bag, and inside the bag wrapped up in tissue paper was a framed picture of a sonogram.
Instantly, I gasped then started to cry.
I blubberly gave the bag to my hubby, and jumped up and gave our daughter in law a hug.
By this time, she was crying too.
I told her that I had no idea why I was crying, but I suppose it was because I was so happy,
She told me that she didn't know why she was crying either, because she had known for a few weeks!!!
Those stinkers knew that they were expecting when they were here for Thanksgiving, and didn't utter a word.
Anyway... we are over the moon happy about being grandparents!

 Gender reveal party.
Our son and wife called after their checkup to see what the gender was. That was on a Wednesday, and they wouldn't tell us!
They wanted to drive down and have a gender reveal party with the whole family.
So that following Sunday, the whole family met, and we had my daughter in laws family on Skype, and she handed me the knife to cut the cake.
Of course laughter, and squeals of delight followed the cutting into to the cake to reveal that the baby is a boy!!
Just my daughter in law and I had been thinking that the baby would be a boy, everyone else in both families thought that the baby would be a girl.
Yay!!! We can hardly wait to meet this darling boy!!
Now... if they could just pick a name! I keep texting my ideas to then, but so far, none of my name ideas have been chosen.
Our son wants a name that is adventurous like : Indiana Jones, or John McClane... etc.
Naturally, our DIL vettos those names... **giggle**
So, if anyone has any awesome name suggestions, I'd love to hear them!!

 A few more pictures from our recent trip.
All of you that are still waiting for snow to melt and the weather to warm up,~~ you are welcome!

 We stayed in a five star hotel that overlooked the ocean and Waikiki Yacht Club.
Boy, did we ever feel spoiled and la~te~da.
Our kids really spoiled us!
When we left Utah, it was snowy, snowy, and cold.
We had to wait for the plane to be de~iced, before the plane could take off.
You can imagine what a welcome sight blue water, palm trees, sand and sun were for us!

 Sunrise over North Shore.
We made it just in time one morning to see the sun rise over the ocean.
We collected a few pieces of beach glass, coral, and lava rock to take home with us.
I put all of our little 'treasures' on a blue colored glass dish in the living room. A constant reminder of a wonderful and lovely trip,

 The LDS Laie Hawaii temple.
We had wanted to attend a session of the temple while we were in Hawaii, but it wasn't open when we were over on that side of the island.
It sure is beautiful though!

 The view from one of our adventurous days.
Our kids arranged for us to go to Kualoa Ranch, and do a two hour ATV ride.
Kualoa Ranch is the setting for many movies and shows :Jurassic World, Jurassic Park, Godzilla, and 50 First Dates, Lost, & Hawaii Five-O..., just to name a few.
There are tons of activities to do there, and I would highly suggest a visit there if you go to Oahu.

 Too fun!

Looks impressive.
Made completely out of styrofoam.
Our tour guide looking at a rope that someone had placed on the skull.

 Sunset view from our room.
That view never got old, as you can imagine.
I have this pic as my current computer save screen.... sigh.... wish I had this view each and every day.

While we were on our trip, our youngest son got engaged!!
Goodness, gracious!!
We knew that these two were going to get engaged, but we thought it would be official once we got home from our trip, not while we were away.
He sent us a pic, and told us it was official.
They are so darling together, and I hope and pray that it all works out beautifully.

This is one of my favorite pics that they had taken.
Her dad took it, and I think it shows their cute personalities and how much fun they have together.
Her dad did an excellent job taking pictures, and I think he is planning on taking the wedding pictures as well.... yay!!

So, now y'all are up to speed, as much as possible at least, without having to read a novel...*giggle**.
This is a big year for me:
  * Our 30th Anniversary
  * Our first grandbaby
  * A wedding
  *Four family birthdays in July
  * Me turning 50, later on in the year.
I'll do my best to update this ol' blog more often, and to get around to visit and chat with everyone.
Enjoy this amazing day... 'cause it'll be gone for ya know it ** hee hee**.

Attitude of gratitude:
~Feeling so thankful for the birdsong outside. Seeing robins and hearing birdsong means that warmer weather is on the way.
~Feeling thankful for daffodils blossoming in the yard.
~Feeling so grateful that our youngest son is in fine health this morning, after a late night scare.
Second time that he's had a disabling panic attack. This time we managed to avoid and emergency room visit and the docs giving him nitro.
Seriously, hope and pray this boy finds out what is triggering these extreme anxiety attacks and is able to fix them.
~Feeling grateful for sweet friends that help out... no questions asked, just supportive and loving when we call at 10:30 at night and asked for help with Spencer.

Our view... trees are beginning to green up, as are the fields.

Last nights scene.
The sunset reflecting off the tops of the mountains. A fresh dusting of snow covers the tops of the mountains, but all that moisture sure helped everything green up even more.

* Adjusting my sails *

Life just sails along most of the time.

All of a sudden, "WHOOSH".. a gust comes along, and blows you completely off course.

 

My oldest brother passed away.  Unexpectedly, very suddenly.

My heart is hurting. 

I've never lost a sibling before.  I've lost my Dad, and my Father in law..... but never a sibling.

It's a different kind of hurt.

 

I'm trying to re-adjust my sails and keep sailing along.

I am so grateful to my Heavenly Father for blessing me, and for the comfort and re-assurance that the atonement of Jesus Christ brings to me.

I know I will see my brother again. What a happy re-union that will be.

I am eternally grateful that Families are Forever!!

 

Also.....

our house is under contract and we are due to move by the end of the month, if not before.

IF everything works out.

SO much is out of our control .  The buyers need to do so many things on their end, in order for the sale to be finalized.

I'd really like to be done with showing our home, and dealing with "LOOKIE LOUS".

I'd really like to move into the home that we've chosen, start decorating, and making new memories with our family.

 

Like the old saying... ' it's not over, til it's over'.

Never the less.. the sale of our house, and the buying of another house is on my mind.

Yep.. it's a lot.

Grateful that the funeral is over, and I feel like I can start to heal. 

 Praying that all goes smoothly, and we don't hit any road blocks with the buyers.

Prayers on our behalf would be much appreciated.

 

There you have it.

The reasons for my blogging absence and the reasons why I may be absent a bit longer.

For now, I'm striving to live like this ~~

 

                                                              She stood in the storm

                                        and when the wind did not

                                                 blow her way,

                                          she adjusted her sails.

 

 

I'm adjusting my sails..........