I thought these days were long gone . . . .

A hand written thank you note. How nice!

The day of . . .

The icing on the cake was receiving flowers from my oldest brother Bob and his wife Bev.  Black carnations!  A Black balloon. He just couldn't let it go unnoticed! An almost even bigger surprise was that the florist delivered to me way out here in the country.

Had my  brother Wesley still been alive he would of toasted me well too. I had paybacks coming from him, but he left us way too early. On one of his birthday's, I filled his truck (while it was at the automotive repair shop), with balloons. On another one, I put his cub scout picture in the newspaper with some silly saying. 

This is a fuzzy picture of what I made for dinner. It was pork backbones and turnip kraut with dumplings. This was always my choice of birthday dinner when Mom was still able to cook. I am so sorry to say I don't have her dumplings for kraut down pat. These turned out doughier, not light and fluffy like hers were. 

And here is what my sister gave me for my 60th. Wait, she said I can't show anyone as it was re-gifted from a family member but I LOVE it Lona. All I can say is, it's two beautiful antique family heirlooms.

LX

That's right 60!  Today is my 60th birthday. And isn't 60 the new 40??? I am proud to have reached this far, and I pray to the good Lord for many more!

I received this gift from a sweet cousin. Thank you Rita. It does make me ponder.

We celebrated just a little at dinner yesterday evening. 

But the BIG celebration comes at the end of the month. My lovely children, Jeremy, Lori, Sarah, and Rusty rented this bus as their gift, to take me and the sisterhood to a tea party. How I wish I could take you all along. But have no fear it will be blogged.  

SOMEONE HACKED INTO MY BLOG!!!!

HAPPY 60TH BIRTHDAY, MOM!!! :)

We love you!

Sarah, Rusty, Jeremy, Lori, Brady, Alex & Lizzie!
:)

That's my daughter!

Way to go Sarah on your award. The evening news cast you produced "rocked"!

P.S. I'm just a little concerned, it's Friday the thirteenth.


Love ya Mom!

Canning vegetable soup minus one.

I love to can. I follow Canning Granny and I've used several of her recipes. After canning oranges and grapefruits from her recipes, I knew they were true, tried, and tasted. 

So we decided to try her grab and go vegetable soup, with a couple of exceptions. 

Granny used hamburger, the blacksmith wanted chunks of beef. I used a 2 1/2 lb chuck roast. I cubed it,  placed it in my 4 qt. pressure canner, added 4 cups water, salt, and pepper. It was then pressured cooked for 12 minutes. That produced nice, tender beef. 

I used 4 potatoes, 2 stalks of celery, 2 carrots, 1 onion, and about a quarter head of cabbage. I used the strained beef broth and brought this to a boil. It then cooked about 10 minutes. 

After that I added 2 pints of tomato juice, 1/2 c quick cooked barley, a package of our frozen corn and a tablespoon of beef soup seasonings, and a little more water (I just didn't measure it). I waited for the entire pot to come back to a boil.  It was then ladled  into pint jars. 

It was  pressure cooked in the big canner for 75 minutes at 15 pounds of pressure. 

We now have 9 pints of beautiful vegetable soup. 

MINUS the fresh green beans that I spent 47 cents on. They were hiding in the refrigerator!

What a difference a year makes.

Look at this!  Today it's 59 degrees. The picture on the 2012 calendar, are the grandsons on this same day a year ago. We had a 20 inch snow.  So far this winter we have had less than 3 inches!!  

  A reminder of last year. 

Oh I wish I could see one nice beautiful snow this winter yet!  I know call me crazy!