Filling up the Pantry

I have been bulk shopping for many years since it is about the only way to do it when you are feeding a big family!  What a blessing to have so much space in this NEW home!

Once a month shopping saves time in the long run but it sure does take a chunk out of the day! I tallied that my most recent bulk shopping trip took me a total of 6 1/2 hours and made a HUGE pile on the table to put away. It takes about 4 large shopping buggies overloaded and an EXPLORER full to overflowing to fill up the cupboards and freezer.

 
(This is only part of the piles!)

This time around I didn't want to put any food away until all the cupboards were organized.  NOT HAVING CUPBOARD doors (about the very last project to complete on the inside) helps keep me motivated to keep them tidy! So I pulled everything left in the cupboards out and put it all back neat and tidy!

I have found a great trick to keeping the cupboards neat is all similar type containers. Also I open up boxes and bags like pasta and flours and sugars and put them all in bulk-size labeled containers.

I offer copies of my pantry labels at Marmee's Bread Market and other pantry storage solutions.

Updated: You are Never too Old for L-O-V-E!

My DaddyDear is 82! Our new Grancy (NancyWard) is 83! Here is their story in short form:

 “Once upon a time. . .Genie-boy and Nancy Ward lived side-by-side. Their early childhood days were passed playing together. One day as they were playing Nancy Ward swirled her jump rope around her head and hit Genie-boy beside the head. Genie-boy retaliated by biting Nancy Ward. Genie-boy was a biter and Nancy’s mother always told her to bite him back. . .but she never got up the courage to do that to Genie-boy. 

This time Nancy’s mother decided to teach Genie-boy not to bite little girls, especially her little girl! She gave him a good bite and he went home wailing!” This led to a confrontation of the two mothers (Ethel Gurganus –Martha’s Grandmother & Mrs. Williams –Nancy Ward’s Momma).  Big Daddy (Martha’s dad) has an elaborate story of the incident and has told his children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren over the years. 

So, Nancy is no stranger to our family. Gene and Nancy began their lives together and Lord willing they will end them together. Most of the family was able to travel and witness their wedding on January 28.2012. Martha, Lydia and Ruth got to sing together as well as Seth,23, and Adam, 31, sang with their Pennsylvania cousins (the other Greenes) during the ceremony. 

We have all fallen in love with “Grancy” and since she was an only child and was never blessed with children—we have piled on her all the “family” she could ever want! So 2012 begins with all the family getting to know our new “GRANCY”! 3 Daughters + 3 Sons-in-Law + 20 GrandChildren + 7 GrandSpouses + 17 Great-Grands welcome her to our Family.

Here is a wedding slideshow of their wedding: Enjoy!

Reading at Home

Learning to Read
3rd Generation Homeschooler

Family Wall Gallery

Adding things that are special and hold memories is what I love in a home. 

I've never been a fan of decorating with photographs/portraits pictures of family even

though I love every one dearly.  I just personally don't like lots of framed photographed portraits on the walls.

But I did want to put up all my dear loved ones and had a BIG space to fill upstairs.  My daughter-in-law shared with me an ingenious inexpensive idea that someone shared with her. 

The IDEA:
Take photos and have them enlarged to any size you like at a copy / print shop and mount them on styrofoam shapes.

So this is how I did this and more about the middle photo grid in at the end

I scanned my favorite snaps or portraits of the family and had them printed at Office Depot

on heavy paper in black white/grey.  Then I used a utility knife and my Carpenter helped

me cut one sheet of RMAX (the styrofoam board they use to insulate homes) it is about

1/2" thick and available at any home improvement store- into the sizes I wanted.  I used

mostly 12" x 12" squares but also did some other shapes like 7x9 and such.  Then I painted

the edges black (note note! you cannot use spray paint as it MELTS the styrofoam!) so

I used water based black craft paint.  It is not necessary to paint anything but the 4 edges (not the surface).

Then I used spray adhesive and mounted each picture to the foam board.  I used a stick-on

picture hanger and put a small tack in the wall and hung them up after CharityAnn helped

me decide on a grouping and how we wanted them to look after they were hung up.

Then I had small little gaping areas and CharityAnn had the brilliant idea for me to cut small pieces

of foam and follow the same procedure! YAY! I love WALL WORDS anyway...so I printed out on cardstock my words and mounted them on the foam board after cutting and painting the edges!  I am so happy with the way it turned out and it was so inexpensive. 

The foam board cost around $13 and I still have plenty left over. I already had the spray adhesive and black craft paint.  The pictures were around 10 cents each!! to print out at Office Depot and they are all large!

I had priced frames and couldn't find any classy black wooden ones for under $15 each!

Now the center grid was just another salvaged (from scratch) thing that just made me do the happy dance!
My big boys are working out of town remodeling grocery stores and one of them brought home this big styrofoam grid from an old display they were putting into the dumpster...I mean big!! This is only about 1/3 of it! 

They cut me off a piece and each grid is 6" x 6". I had room for 35 pictures! I have a BIG family and had room for

everybody!

I painted the whole thing black and printed  my favorite family pics and mounted them all on the back with tape and hung it up for my center gallery.  So it was pretty much free! (except for my paper and ink).

I am so happy with the look and love looking at all my dear family on the wall upstairs! LOVE them ALL so MUCH!

In memory of BEAR

We had a houseful of children and had various pets and varmits they all claimed during their childhood..living in the country made it just natural to have pet turkeys, kittens, sally the pig, and all sorts of puppies, mostly mutts.

BEAR came to us when Zack was about 7 and wanted his "OWN" dog.  We found a want ad in the news for boxer-lab pups.

Roger took him and everyone else that packed in to go "get a puppy" and Zack picked out little BEAR.  He was all black and the cutest little thing you ever saw.  The fella wanted Roger to take the entire litter and said he would throw in the dog house too if he would just take them. He said they each could have their "own" since we had a child plus more for every pup he had left.

He just brought home BEAR. 

Roger is adamant about NO animals in the house.  The children were all worried about Baby BEAR on the porch in his box but Poppee assured them he would be just fine after he got used to being away from his mama.  It didn't take but a few hours of his wailing and whining and the children had Roger talked into letting him be on the fireplace mantle or by the clothes dryer if they didn't let him run loose in the house.

Next thing I knew they were feeding him hot dogs by the crackling fireplace.  He stole all our hearts.

BEAR was faithful, obedient, watchful, gentle and loved to swim and retrieve.  If the boys couldn't find a deer they had shot, they would come home and get BEAR and he would track it right down for them.  He RARELY got into trouble EXCEPT a FEW times!!  He got a dog spanking of his life when

he got an appetite for goat and dug into Chelsey's Rabbit Park Pen and killed her newborn goat just to be a hunter I guess? and BEAR understood "English"!

I could tell him we would be back on Saturday nite and we would head off for Grandpa's farm and he would circle round and round the car and watch us pack and then get into all kinds of trouble while we were gone overnite.  The worst he ever did was when we came home to all our laying hens scattered over the yard midst a pile of feathers and all Chelsey's pet rabbits slain on top of the chickens (I always wonder if he didn't have some help from a fox or another dog accomplice?)

That just wasn't like him and as long as we were around he was the BEST BEAR!

But we did make a mistake when we let him walk with us to the pond to see Chelsey's brand new white ducks swimming in their home!  He spotted them and swam the 3 acre pond for hours until he got them both, even going under water, and much to Chelsey's dismay – he feasted on DUCK for dinner that night. Sometimes he could be VERY naughty!

When Zack moved out on his own he became Marmee's bodyguard (as if I needed another one since I have Carpenter??) BEAR never let me walk or swing or be outside on the acres without being right by me.  If I would be puttering in my herb garden...that is where he would nap.  If I went for a walk and stopped a minute – he stopped too.

He watched and waited and would not walk on without me. 

BEAR was napping more and more these past months and getting a bit thin. We all knew he couldn't live forever but none of us wanted to think of when he wouldn't be at the back door taking his nap and looking up at us or walking with us to the pond to watch the boys fish.

We buried him last week in the family burial plot on the acres.  Saturday he meandered down to the pond but didn't make it and went off the path a few feet and laid down in the woods and died.

We all miss our BEAR! The boys made him a headstone from one of the porch pavers they had made and put his studded collar around it. The daisys are blooming in the burial field so he got a proper bouquet. sniff sniff sniff.....

Blessed to be Mommies

Here is my sweet Erica with her 4 darlings..Kevin(9) Elise(5) Levi(3) and lil Ansley-Kate(17mo)

She is such a good mommy and is so strong for her little ones through all her heartbreak and suffering.

The Lord is definitely making beauty from the ashes of her life.

Here is Benj's sweet little family – Caitlyn is a mommie for the first time this Mother's Day 2012.
Brynnleigh is just sitting up, blowing bubbles and laughing outloud – her daddy loves to make her laugh!

Here is Adam's sweet little family minus lil Roger Greene – will find some pics to post soon

Mother's day 2012 on the new front porch with some of my precious ones – all the boys must have

been cooking (jokejoke!) – can't find any mothers day pics with boys boys boys - but I have been blessed with

such fine young men – all my babies are so grown up – SamAsher is 13 – no more babies in the nest

so I keep it feathered full of grandbabies! So blessed and privileged to be a mother.

Family News 2012

Family News for 2011-2012

The Greene Gazette

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