Joyful Momma's Cake DVD Review

Kimberly Eddy, from Joyful Momma posted a wonderful review of our Basic Cake Decorating DVD. While we were gone on vacation she e-mailed me pictures from her girls and it about brought me to tears!

THIS is what teaching is all about! Yes, we do want to increase our income with our DVDs and e-books, but receiving something like this in my inbox is really what makes it all worth it!

The Eddys gave an honest and encouraging review of our Basic Cake Decorating DVD. Hop on over to Joyful Momma to all see the other pictures of her children and their eatable creations!

THANK YOU Kimberly and thank you children for bringing JOY to my heart and home!

Jewelry Class Pictures

Here are a few pictures from our Jewelry Making Class during our Domestic Day Camp last week.

This was hosted and taught by Jane and her daughters!
They did a great job!

This week we are doing Card Making!

Vacation Pictures

We are back home from our trip to New York, as much as we love our family I can honestly say THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME! :o) We've been playing catch up with the laundry and in the garden...thus there has been no time for blogging.

OK, now to bore you with some vacation/family pictures:

As I posted last week, both of our families are in upstate New York so we spend most of our time running back and forth to see everyone. This picture is how most mornings were spent as everyone likes to gather on the porch with Grandpa (Jeff's dad). Grandma (Jeff's mom) has lots of flowers hanging in baskets and you can look out over the corn fields and watch for deer and turkeys...Grandpa's favorite past time! This is an old farm house that has been in the family for ???? years. Jeff and Emma helped Grandpa in his garden a lot and did a couple other home maintenance things for him, he has lost almost half of his foot over the past two years and has suffered from MERCA (staff infection). Jeff does such a wonderful job of honoring his parents.

Over at my grandmother's farm we got to help with getting the hay in, and the girls planted some flowers for their Great Grandma, affectionately known as GG! :o)

My uncle that lives next door rescued a pigeon that fell from the barn last year,
it was very small.

Well this crazy bird LOVES people.

She will follow you around and you have to be careful because she'll land on your head. She'll even fly into the house if you're not quick enough to out run him and close the door.

We weren't thrilled about him sitting on our heads, but it was kind of funny!
I wish I'd gotten a picture of Olivia going from the house to the car with an umbrella because she didn't want the bird to land on her at first.
Like Jeff, his brother Lynne is a Vol. Fireman. The department host Field Days each summer to help raise funds, it's kind of like a mini-fair, with a parade and fireworks. Lynne's family helps with concessions. Olivia, Cousin Katrina and Emma.

Olivia and her cousin Amanda.

We went bowling with Jeff's brothers and their families.

Jeff's nephew has CP, he is 17.
They have a ramp thingy so he can roll the ball down which is pretty cool!

Emma is a natural...just like her DAD!

Olivia did well too!

The girl's cousins (one is not pictured here) are the same age as they are
and their personalities are similar, so needless to say they giggle non-stop!

And of course ...

going to ride the go-carts is a tradition we have.

One thing about my husband...whether it be foozeball (sp?), golf, bowling, horseshoes, baseball, and especially pool, he will win! He is by no means competitive, he is not into sports at all, but he is naturally good at these things, even though he rarely plays any of them. Which is WHY I hate to bowl or anything else, what's the use if you are NEVER going to win? To top all that, he NEVER brags about winning. Now if I were to win you'd hear about it for years! ;o)

We had a graduation party for Olivia over at Jeff's parent's house. It went really well with about 80 people there, the weather was perfect and we had a good time. I'll post more about that later.


This year was our family reunion (my side), the first one in a long time. I guess it has been 20 years since I've been to one. Anyway, some of my cousins (and their families), an aunt and uncle and my mother came from out of state also and stayed at my grandmothers, she has a BIG, old, farm house.

The family reunion was on our last day there. Some people I knew, most I did not, but that is OK we've got to start somewhere. It was good to see my cousins! We had 85-90 in attendance, which I think is pretty good.

My grandmother (the beautiful one in red, we tell her she looks like Queen Elizabeth) is one of 6 siblings, her other sister died from cancer about 35 years ago. They are now all widowed. Anyway, they are a vibrant bunch. They all have their senses about them and some still drive and stay very active.

I thought since a lot of us would not know each other that each sibling's family should dress in one color to help us sort who belongs to who. The Conover Clan (my grandma's family) dressed in red.

We held an auction to help raise funds for next year's reunion. Jeff and my cousin-in-law were the auctioneers, this is another thing Jeff is a natural at...he can sell anything to anyone! lol... That was fun! This is a quilt I donated.

Here is Olivia and another relative outbidding each other over a hanging plant. It was pretty funny!

Olivia helped with signing in and and Emma got everyone registered for the door prizes. We've got lots of ideas for the next reunion! I just wish it wasn't SO FAR to drive!

One Evening at the Farm

Jeff and I grew up in Upstate New York. Both of our grandparents had dairy farms, so needless to say we both spent our share of time on the farm(s). Unfortunately, because we moved away our children haven't had much of a farm life. But when we do visit New York we try to give them a taste of the 'good life'!

This year we are visiting during HAY SEASON! When we visit at Christmas all they really 'get to do' is shovel snow! ;o)

These pictures are taken at my grandmothers farm. She is 83 and still bales hay! She has been widowed for almost 30 years and has managed to keep her home and 100 acres all these years. My uncle lives next door and they work it together. She has no livestock, just uses the land for hay and corn to sell to other local farmers.

Yes, this is Olivia proving you CAN do farm work in a skirt. lol... That is a hook in her hand that is used for grabbing the bales of hay.

Jeff taught Emma how to drive the Ford tractor, it is a 1951.
This is the same tractor I learned to drive on as a kid.Plan A was to use this baler that kicked the bales out toward the wagon.


Part of being a farmer is to know how to maintain and REPAIR your equipment! All of this equipment is so old it breaks down often, which is the case here!

So...Plan B: Uncle would drive the first tractor with a different baler on. This baler will drop the bales on he ground. The second tractor that Emma was driving with the wagon on it would follow behind...

...and Jeff would pick up the bales and toss them on the wagon.
Yes, Jeff had the short end of the stick on this job, or I guess you could say he got the heavy end of the bale! ;o) Olivia would stack the bales.

I am not allowed to do any heavy lifting, so I was safety monitor and photographer/historian...hey, someone has to record all these memories!
And just for the record, I did drive the tractor near the end of the night, but I won't post those hideous pictures.

Here we are getting it on the elevator and int5o the haymow just before dark.

Domestic Day Camp- HERBS!

Today was our first Herb Class. One of our teachers was not feeling well so Olivia had the class to teach for herself. In my humble opinion as her mother (OK, hear a little pride puffing up), I must say I think she did a great job. She has had plenty of experience with public speaking, giving 5-8 minute speeches, but not necessarily 'teaching' a room full of people for 3 hours.

I guess it helps that she has studied herbs for 2-3 years and has a prosperous herb garden of her own.

I know this is a bad picture...I'll hear about it later. ;o)












For lunch she made an herb vinaigrette, salad, roasted tortilla chips, chicken kabobs, choc cheesecake garnished with mint. We also had herb butter with wheat rolls and crackers.











Each family had a set of herbs on their table to see, smell and identify.

Although this was a Domestics class we let boys come to this one since herb gardening is a pretty neutral skill.


We also played an identification game...be careful about playing with that Ferrill family, they are serious competitors! What a smart bunch! :o)




Each family went home with a pot of five different herbs.


THANK YOU to everyone that came and we look forward to hearing about your herb gardens and what you are making with them.