Kansas Beauty and God's Heavens

You are welcome to use my photo.

One thing I love about living on a farm is the open space. Last night Mr. Phil was working on the corral, digging a trench so the water would run off. We received 3 1/2 inches of rain. Hmmmmmmm love it!!!! So will my garden. WE needed it so bad. Well another storm was off in the horizon and so the sky was opening up for us all to see all of HIS GLORY! You couldn't help but think about this verse. Beauty in the Kansas sky! Thought you might like to see what we saw.

The sky was even more pink than this.

Love the silhouette of the trees against the sky.

The clouds were dancing!

Mr. Phil and I walked the field to check on the little baby soybeans. They are looking real cute these days.

My grandkids found this tiny frog. They wanted you all to see him. He is not even a half of an inch long. A little cutie!

When I was a young girl in Alaska my Grandpa gave me a pond for all my frogs for my birthday. I would go all over to different ponds and collect tadpoles and little frogs like this and bring them back to my pond. Fun memory!

Yesterday was our middle son and his precious wife's 13th anniversary. We made them our favorite Nummy Chocolate Cake. I wish I could share a piece with you, but I CAN share the recipe! I have made this same cake ever since we got married.

Our Favorite Chocolate Cake

2 c. flour

2 c. sugar

1 tea. soda

2 sticks butter (a must)

4 T. cocoa

1 cu. cold water

1/2 c. buttermilk

1 tsp. vanilla

2 eggs

Hershey Chocolate Frosting

1 stick butter

4 T. cocoa

5 T. milk

1 tsp. vanilla

1 pound of powdered sugar

opt. 1 c. nuts

Sift flour and sugar together in large mixing bowl. In a saucepan, bring to boil the butter, cocoa and cold water; pour over flour and sugar. Add remaining ingredients and pour into a large rimmed cookie sheet; 10” x 15”. Bake 20 minutes at 400 degrees.

Last 5 minutes of cake baking time, make icing. In saucepan, bring butter, cocoa and milk to boil. Add vanilla, powdered sugar and nuts. Frost over cooled cake. A must: You need a cold cold glass of milk. Num! From the kitchen of Prairie Flower Farm

Have a wonderful summer day!

My Weekend Was Full! Saw Miss Clarice!

You are welcome to use this picture.

Look at Miss Clarice's precious hands.

Hello sweet ladies!

Went to go see my Momma this weekend. As most of you know she lives in a nursing home not far from me. She was in a real good mood and held my hand so tight. She is so healthy, other then she has either dementia of Alzheimer's. I know she knows us and so you just don't know. She can't talk, but she was giving us kisses and she normally doesn't do that. It was a God moment for me! Before we left we peeked in on Miss Clarice. Click on her name and you can read about her. She is the sweet lady we made the apron pattern that we sell along the side bar for. She was excited to see us. She was in her apron and let me take some pictures of her.

She showed us her pillow that was all crazy pieced. Thought you might like to see it. She made it herself and didn't use a pattern she said! In her locket is a picture of herself, her husband and their son. She won't take it off.

She said, "look in the third drawer down of her dresser and you can see what I have been crocheting". I was looking and she said, "Get the ball of pink crochet thread and in the inside you will find the flowers". Tucked inside the ball of thread, I found the pink little flowers. I love her well worn little hands. They are so soft. She had used a saftey pin to hold them together.I would have never thought of doing that! I will now though. Go here if you want to use her pattern for the little flowers. She show me EVERYTHING with excitement and then asked me what I was up to in the sewing department. So cute! Her hands are hurting more and holding a crochet needle is getting harder for her. We need to ask the Lord to help her, please. She showed me the trim she made to finish up the towel. Like I said her hands are hurting so she was not pleased with the stitching. I loved it, but it was preparing me that maybe one day, I won't be able to do like I like to do now. The edging is in the top picture. Absolutely beautifu! I have bloggy friends that helped me find the endings some time back when I talked about Miss Clarice before. The edging can be found in the book Fifty Beautiful Edgings by Terry Kimbrough

After she showed me the crocheting she wanted me to see this old old old bonnet someone brought in for her to have. I love black, red and white together. She was not pleased with the workmanship and she was going to tear it apart and make it right! Look at the red rick rack along the brim of the bonnet! I would have left it just as is!!!!!!! I couldn't see a thing wrong with it other then it didn't have a ruffle on it like hers. I looked at it and wondered who wore it and what the story was behind it. Hmmmm happy thoughts!

She brought hers out from the side of her chair and she said that hers was the right way to make it! It needed to have a ruffle. She sang me a little ditty and before I could write it down, she forgot what she said! So did I!

She wears it when she goes outside to get some sun!!!!!

Cutie!

Earlier in the day, my grand-daughter and I were outside doing chores and checking on the garden. She had a lot of fun with her Grammie. I will tuck this time in my heart forever!!!!!

Let my teaching fall like rain
and my words descend like dew,
like showers on new grass,
like abundant rain on tender plants.

Deuteronomy 32:2

I love this verse!

My tomatoes have kind of gotten away from me

this last week. They are growing outside their

cages. I took my string and scissors and

tied the branches up closer to the cage. One had

bent over so far and snapped. I lost a whole branch with lots

of baby blossoms on it. Sad! I have been real blessed

with lots of tomatoes on every plant, so I won't complain. It will be so fun to be in the kitchen canning and freezing our produce that we will use for the winter months. Go here for our

Ball Blue Book Stewed Tomatoes, that we use for our soup base when we make chili and Vegetable Beef Soup! Start canning it now, so you have it for later. Soup doesn't sound good when it is 100 degrees outside, but it will, when it is in the 60's!

Checked on the Moon and Stars. Such a cute watermelon plant! These are about 1/2". Look at the little hairs on their bodies.

Hope you can see the little hairs LOVE IT!

The moon is growing and the little stars are coming out!

I love how God is so detailed!!!!!!!!

This was something that Ellie and I found and thought it was so "cool". It looked like little brown corn on the cob. Isn't the Lord just amazing? We thought it was little eggs. No it is not it is,________. I couldn't not show you. It is so interesting and don't you think it looks just like corn on the cob? We googled it and we read something about silk worms. I don't think we have silk worms in Kansas. May though. If anyone knows anything about this, we would be interested. The grandkids thought it was the best.

I know this is a long post and you don't have to read it all. Mainly I write to keep it as a journal for myself and family, but love it when you become a part of our big blog family!

Hope you all are having a wonderful weekend! I have been coming over to your blogs!

Love and hugs from the farm.

Land That I LOVE!

You are welcome to use this photo, if you like!

Asking for the Lord to keep His hand on our country!

Hope all is well at your home as you are enjoying the 4th! We are getting rained out, so we don't think there will be a parade at least not at 2:00. Smile. Love you all and I can't thank you enough for all the kindness you sent our way on the comments. Your prayers have been such an encouragement!!!!!! You are such precious ladies and my daughters are seeing that! I know they are learning from you all.

Blessings to your family from our farm,

Sad goodbye!

Alaska and her girls

Today after I put up my post, life got real hard for us here on the farm. We have an older horse named Alaska that was given to us about 2 1/2 years ago. She was a black beautiful Tennessee Walker with a wonderful temperament. Tay would just hop on her bareback and ride around the corral. She died today.

New baby chicks were being born and then our horse died all in the same day. Both ends of the spectrum. It is life! It will be so nice for us all to be with Jesus one day! Life can be so mean. We told our horse we wouldn't leave her. We didn't, she died a horrible death. I am sorry that my youngest who is soon to be 16 watched, she wouldn't have it any other way. I tried to protect her. She couldn't leave her horse alone. I think Tay learned a lot about commitment today. In the easy and in the hard are we going to stick with it. So, if you wouldn't mind would you lift my girls up today to the Lord. They really need some extra prayers. We are so thankful we are not alone. We have the Lord to help us through this. We really love our animals. I know a lot of you out there know what I mean. Thank you ladies for being there when we need you! You are so precious to us!

Saying goodbye

It is late tonight when I am putting up this post it is Friday night. I didn't know what tomorrow would be like. Our little town starts celebrating with a famous turtle race in the morning. It is so funny! It will help to take our minds off of things.

Blessings,

Americana Flag Tutorial And Some Other Stuff

You are soooo welcome to use our photo.

Our Father we come before you humbly asking for forgiveness for our Nation who has turned their back on You. We who love and serve you are working and asking for your mercy. Continue to work in our lives to help us change what we can, but ultimately our trust is in You and You alone no matter the outcome. As I have been reading in 1 Samuel they wanted a King. They did not want to keep YOU as their King. We are proclaiming today that we want no other then You as our KING! We ask that YOU would continue to use us in this Nation to tell many what you have done for us. Dying on a cross, shedding your blood, so that we may have true choice and freedom, from the chains of sin and Hell. Not perfect, but changed from the inside out because of Jesus! You are so worthy of our allegiance. May we live lives that would show You our gratitude for what you have done and are still doing in our lives and our country. We have YOUR hope. Not all is lost! We thank YOU, that YOU have everything under control and we have nothing to fear. Remind us of that daily, Father. We Love and Adore you Lord,

Your Children

I felt really lead to say a prayer for our Nation. If you have a prayer, please leave it in my comments. Even if it is just a sentence. We will join along with you as we seek our Father for HIS help! We really need it! Love you all! Linda

Here is the Americana Flag tutorial I was telling you about yesterday. I was able to have two little boys help me. You can use little girls or just yourself! Smile!

You will need a tree that you can cut off branches from!

I had the two little boys help me; we had a saw to cut with

(it makes them feel strong).

1. A package of flags (they come in two, you only need

one for each branch) and a 36" branch.

2. 1 1/2" x 1 1/4 yd. red checked ribbon with wire. Thin twine,

tapestry needle and scissors

3. Take flag off of original stick (if you don't have a branch you

can leave stick on and tie the ribbon at the top). Still really cute!

If you want to make the flag look old, put it in strong tea or coffee and stain it.

4. String twine through large eyed tapestry needle.

5. Poke needle through the top of the flag (where first staple was).

6. Bring through and tie in a bow.

7. Do the same for the middle and bottom of flag (where there was a staple).

8. Take ribbon and tie into a bow at the very top of stick.

You can put this in a wreath, garden flower pot with flowers,

an old granite coffee pot. What ever you do please let me

see pictures. I would love to see them!

The girls and I were freezing strawberries. We made up

some Strawberry Vinaigrette Dressing. It is so easy!

Here is what you do.

1. Cut off the top of the strawberry leaf with just a little meat left. At the top I added just a few cut up strawberries to give a little more flavor.

Put into a mason jar.

2. A jar of white vinegar.

3. Fill the jar to cover the tops of strawberry tops with white vinegar.

4. Put a lid on the jar and put in the refrigerator. Let it sit for 24 hours. Strain the juice out and add 1/2 cup of oil, 1/8 teaspoon poppy seeds and 1/2 cup sugar or any other sweetener to taste.

Make up a salad using:

Spinach leaves, strawberries, tangerine slices (canned, drained), slivered almonds and a little crumpled feta cheese. Mmmmmm nummy! Great 4th salad and super easy!

Enjoy the 4th!

I know for some of you this will be a celebration and for other's you are still hurting physically or with a broken heart. Know I am praying and thinking of you this weekend! I remember times in my life when nothing was a celebration. Praying God will get you on the other side and give you great JOY again!

Welcome to the new followers. Some I can come to your blog

and others I can't. : ( For some reason it is blocked, just know I am glad you are a part of Prairie Flower Family!

P.S. I am putting this in later after I had the post up! We are busting little chicken EGGS hatching!! I went to go check on Miss Red. She has 3 baby chicks!!!!!!!! I can't believe it. I went to give the bigger babies water that Little Miss Fluff hatched a while back.I thought I should check under MRs. Red to see if anything has been happening under her safe tummy! I was surprised to see a baby. I ran into the house to get the camera. I went back to take pic's and there were 2 others that had hatched earlier!! Yey! Babies, I just love babies! Tomorrow I will put up a video so you can see and show your kids and grandchildren.

Blessings and hugs from the farm,

Fresh Tomatoes, Onions and a Really Good Hamburger for the 4th!

We love our hamburgers with a little spice! This is the easiest recipe. All you need is this little bottle of...............

You will need to buy a bottle of Grill Mates, Montreal Steak seasoning. We usually use it on steak, but our girls are always coming up with fun meals from our farm kitchen. They tried this and now we want it like this every time! For each pound of hamburger mix in 1 Tablespoon of the seasoning. Shape into hamburgers.

Shake more seasoning to taste on the top of each hamburger.

Press the seasoning into each shaped burger. Grill on the grill!

I was so excited to beable to slice our tomatoes from our garden!!!! To think this tiny seed planted in a cup and it grows to gives us lots and lots of tomatoes for our family! God is soooooo good to us. Hope we always notice! Also pulled a few onions. They aren't real big, but they worked for us!

Our daughters were at some friends house for dinner. The momma made her hamburger buns this way and so we have started to do the same. Use real butter. Butter each side of the hamburger bun.

Cook on the skillet.

Build your hamburger and eat. Mmmmmm num! Tell me what you think! It really is so good. We will be eating these for the 4th of July. Do you make anything special or do anything special for the 4th? I would love to hear your traditions. Ours is to go to our city lake. It is so beautiful when they shoot the fireworks over it. We have a big family and so we bring quilts and chairs. I always get to lay with the grandkids looking up at all the fireworks. Beautiful!

Today my grandson is going to help me go and cut down some branches. We are going to make something special together. I will put it up on Friday. It is simple and a fun decorating idea.