It's Late Afternoon on the Farm

It is late afternoon on the Farm.  Well, I don't actually live on a farm but I'm closer than I was when I started my blog.  When this blog began, I lived in a subdivision in East Tennessee and now I live just outside of town in middle Tennessee, not on a farm but in the country.  I grew up on a farm in Georgia and left the farm when I got married.  All those years I wanted to get off the farm and now, I'd love to get back.  I guess you could say that I'm a farm girl want-a-be. 
On Saturday we were getting ready to grill some chicken and I was treated to the beautiful afternoon sun shining through the leaves on the trees.  It was wonderful and I thought you'd like to see some pictures.
All of these are the side yard by the driveway.  It is one of the many favorite spots in this yard.  The trees are just beautiful and at the end of the day............well, see for yourself.

And this is just a little something we found under the trash can.  The boys said that it reminded them of the movie Monster's Inc. 
I hope you enjoyed this afternoon tour.  I sure enjoyed seeing it.

On A Mission for Grammar

I am on a mission for grammar.  I can't help it.  It bothers me immensely that so many can not speak our language properly.  Am I alone in this?  I certainly hope not.  But in my quest for proper grammar, I've examined a lot of curriculum searching for something that is simple but thorough.  Don't get me wrong, there's a lot of great curriculum out there.  One of my favorites is Easy Grammar.  However, this year we started using Classical Writing and I realized that we needed something more.  So I began a new search.  My search brought me to Our Mother Tongue: A Guide to English Grammar by Nancy Wilson.  I love this curriculum.  The lessons are short with simple explanations and it's easy to use.  My favorite thing is that it teaches sentence diagramming.  Classical Writing requires sentence diagramming and I have not diagrammed a sentence since seventh grade.  Needless to say I needed help in this area.
Another thing that I like about this curriculum is that it gives a history lesson on language.  In the margins it gives Latin derivatives as well as how our language came to be.  Since we have been studying Latin for three years, this has come in handy.

As I said earlier, I like Easy Grammar and this curriculum compliments Easy Grammar very well.  The worksheets in Easy Grammar are a good reinforcement to the lessons in Our Mother Tongue.  Since getting this book, we have used the two curriculum in conjunction.  So far it's going well. 
I would recommend this book to any parent or teacher who is interested in helping their child, or themselves, with better grammar.  And who can not benefit from better grammar?  
I hope you'll give this a try.

What a Difference One Week Makes

This was the apple tree in my front yard one week ago and now............................

Here's the same tree today.  What a difference one week makes in the Springtime.  I love Spring because, after a long cold spell, the newness of life is encouraging.  When I lived in south Georgia, I always hated the month of August because it was so dang hot.  August is hot in Tennessee also, but Fall comes a lot sooner here than in south Georgia.  I use to think that if Hell is hotter than a south Georgia August, then I do not want to go there.  But now that I live in Tennessee, February and March have become my months of longing.  During those months, it seems as if winter will last forever.  And then, as if God has breathed life into the world again, things begin to bloom, green returns to the trees, and warm breezes replace cold rain.  I want to enjoy this time before August gets here and I pray for relief from the heat.  This is the time of year to be outside (without a jacket or sweater), ride with the windows down, and plant something, anything.  It is a time of renewal, a new beginning.  Don't you just love that?  A new beginning..................renewed................fresh start...........  We all need that don't we?   And God gives us that in a relationship with Him.  He takes what is dead and brings it back to life.  He takes what the moth has eaten and He restores.  He takes a life at a dead end and gives a fresh start.  All of this can be seen in nature if we take the time to observe.  All of this is seen in the life of a person when that person accepts Christ as their Savior.  During this season, most people are looking for that "new beginning, fresh start" and there is only one place to find it........... in the one who created all this beauty and newness of life.  I hope you have that renewal, that hope of a new beginning.
Here are some more pictures of Spring at my house.

                                            Just became full of new life this week

                                                                Spring Green

 This is one of the turkeys that comes to our house everyday.  We have named him Fred.  Fred and his buddies love to graze in our yard and they are not afraid of our dog or the lawn mower.

We have enjoyed watching these turkeys ever since we moved here last August.  God is so good and so creative.
So what is happening at your house this Spring?