Day in the Life of Susannah

Oh Susannah - what a day you had. Starting off waking up with sister Sugar Pie (honey bunch - yep that song) in pen looking oh so sweet.

Not two minutes later - looks like you were thinking seriously of chomping down on Luci Watusi's ear - git it outta my way says Susannah.

Not sure I can get bloggerized enough to make these show up in order . Caught a series of photos throughout morning showing how deceptive appearances can be.


Susannah climbs atop the tree perch -looking for fun? OR someone to conquer?

Bubbles shows up - thinking"I'm older than little show off Susannah - I'll just make my move"

Location location location isn't just relevant in real estate - makes a big difference in queen (or at least bossy girl) of the tree stump .

Susannah starts in her defense mode and

and

and

Yep - butted off the stump by an uppity little doeling!

Last shot shows Susannah's obvious "Come On - You wanna piece of this tough Texas gal?"

OK maybe just maybe I exaggerated a tiny bit - but it still made me laugh on Buhlaland and that is always good!

It's a mad plaid world isn't it?

Dear friends and others who read my foolishness - picture is quite irrelevant to what I am writing today . Picture taken last holiday season - me holding a large gift bow on top of my head and attempting to get a picture of my big plaid self. The expression - ah - a thing of beauty is a joy forever - or some such poetic nonsense. I take self portraits in front of our hall tree/mirror in entry way - limits the options but can see myself.

All this aside - I am only a few posts short of putting up my 400th (oh my goodness) blogpost and rather than think of something clever or meaningful (and to prove I'm mentally lazy) I have decided to open the door to potential hazardous topics.

Y'all can ask anything you want - do I wear boxers or briefs? Where did I get my education? Am I a pre/mid or post tribulationist? You send in the question and I'll attempt to answer. Now - I will refuse a question which I cannot answer honestly/truthfully without hurting someone else - fair enough?

No prizes - no guess my weight or anything risky - just questions and answers. I realize I am not Ree Drummond but hope this will be fun for y'all. Oh - yes food questions are great too. Things like how I cook an elephant (very seldom) or my favorite meal ever - or something simple like why does a jelly sandwich always land jelly side down?

Life is great on Buhlaland - incredible autumn weather, within a reasonable time of finishing THE GREAT RENOVATION PROJECT (cue the sound of celestial choirs) and overall knowing we are blessed beyond belief. Our infirmities never block the view of eternity.

Sharing with you an absolute Truth with a capital T -

"My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness."
2 Corinthians 12:9

Little things mean a lot and sometimes irritate!

Jasper is giving his mama Pearl a few little goat nibbles. Pearl is either enjoying or thinking "isn't it time I start weaning this little parasite?"

Well I'm enjoying having internet again! We were without internet for about 4 days and realized - I miss y'all!

Will have more to say soon - but for tonight - go nibble someone you love and remind them you mean a lot and sometimes irritate too! It is good on Buhlaland -very good.

We were wondering yesterday if THIS:

had anything to do with the vulture convention in our front yard?? We weren't feeling tip top yesterday but this is entirely premature vulture gathering! Just laughing and staying in the air conditioning here on Buhlaland - cold front coming later this week (dropping into the low to mid 90's - don't laugh it beats 100+ by more than just ten degrees)

He'd Hate This IF He Ever Read What I Write!

UPDATE: - DH did read this one - he googled his own name the other night and found this - wouldn't you know it? The one time I really break his desire to remain off-blog and he found it - not much was said but I don't think it really bugged him much!

I read bloggers who say their spouses and Significant Others read devotedly each syllable they print. My husband hates it when I write about him on "that blog thing of yours". He really doesn't want pictures of himself on "your blog". Sometimes he might sneak a peak but I don't know 'cause we are a modern marriage and each have our own computers!
Yesterday was his birthday - won't say how many he has had but it has been quite a few (and not nearly enough!). Here he was as a curly haired tyke in Michigan.

Restaurant picture was in Germany on our one big travel adventure several years ago. Picture was taken by our good friend - Yasser and his beautiful wife Mirella.

Our beautiful wedding ceremony on a New Year's Day - we were married in the bed and breakfast we owned in Colorado for a couple of years.

I love the picture of DH walking in our Texas winter landscape with two of our rat terrorist dogs. All our pets love him best - he is a good pet master and a loyal, funny and hard working best friend. Last picture he was literally saying - don't take a picture of me as I photographed him talking on his cell phone (probably to his brother, Roger).

Yes the porch needs repainting and it IS on the list - if you don't die until you complete all the work God has for you on earth - my sweet guy will live to be 150. Happy Birthday -

A bit of a croc(k)

Here's looking at YOU - kid - ala Bogart and Bacall the big time stars or in this case - Ellie and Hannah the goats

Nest is of unknown bird type - tiny little eggs in the ceiling joist of the fiberglass "mama and baby" shelter in our goat pen. Notice the lovely goat hair woven in for warmth and softness!

Haven't been blogging - I'd give lots of excuses but I usually tell the truth - been doing some real work around Buhlaland and lots of running around to stores (Lowes, Depot, Costco - source of my delightful crocky shoes and Wally World) . Even took pictures of food I was preparing for Sunday - and it didn't turn out all that yummy so why blog about it?

Ok Ok - so have also been playing with dogs, chickens, goats and making do without hot water.

Water heater began to leak (thank you - who ever did it - for the invention of drain pipes - very useful) so we ended up almost 5 days without hot water in the house. Blessed by having a small water heater in workshop bathroom so we trekked back and forth like we were at church camp! you know - without the meetings, crafts and some of the annoying songs.

Now we have hot water, addition is finished on the outside and tomorrow we drywall (I am using the royal we and no Prince William isn't coming to help DH). It is warm, we've had rain and are so blessed here on Buhlaland - we can take hot showers and wash dishes. Woo Hoo - it doesn't sound like much until you can't so easily.

I'm listening to Chris Tomlin's recording of Amazing Grace/My Chains are Gone - can't put it here due to limitation at YouTube but here's the link - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghZfnQxUhzQ

It is good on Buhlaland and grace is abundant!

Oddities and I'm not talking family pictures

At times here on Buhlaland - strange things appear. Apparently these fruits of galls are an incubator/hatchery for a wasp of some kind. I am curious about the whats and whys - my fanciful name for this oddity was Oak Tree Limes. They are about the size of a lime and certainly a lime color. When you pull one open it is filled with strange tissue. I didn't find a larva supposedly inside each one (and I didn't mind not finding a wormy thing - trust me - it is not my goal in life to find more yucky stuff) but I'll take the word of various internet experts. Just thought y'all might need something weird in your life today - if not - chalk this up to my having a computer and a camera and a little too much time this week.

Psalm 146:5-6 (New International Version)
5 Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD his God,
6 the Maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them— the LORD, who remains faithful forever.

We might find or even do odd things here on Buhlaland but being one of those whose help is the God of Jacob - it is GOOD.

I've noticed a pattern

I perused (don't you love that word - peruse - sounds smarter than looked at stuff) my blog archives to determine whether we'd enjoyed this yumo cookie bar previously. You'll be pleased to know it's more than likely new to you. I was struck (no! not by lightning or a baseball bat ) by the number of recipes I make using oatmeal - I must be a real Quaker Oats kinda person.

These cookie bars taste a little like cream pie without the meringue topping (Oh I know some of you out there put whipped cream toppings on cream pies - but I'm from the part of Texas known as meringue country.(may also be known as the home of malarkey from Linda Sue).

Original recipe (which featured Craisins) was from Betty Crocker recipes online.

Sour Cream Cookie Bars

preheat oven to 350 degrees

1. one cup butter, softened



2. one cup packed brown sugar



3. two cups quick-cooking oats



4. one and one half cups all purpose flour



5. one teaspoon baking soda



6. one and one half cups shredded coconut



7. one 20 oz can pineapple tidbits, well drained



8. one cup sour cream



9. three fourths cup (3/4) granulated sugar



10. two tablespoons all purpose flour



11. two teaspoons vanilla



12. one egg

Mix the butter and brown sugar in bowl of mixer, add oats, 1 1/2 cups of flour and baking soda until the mixture is crumbly. Press half of the mixture in a 13X9X2 inch pan (don't grease it)

Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until golden brown.

Mix remaining ingredients in a large bowl. Pour over baked crust. Crumble remaining oat mixture over filling.

Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until top is golden brown and filling well set. Cool completely (yeah right - we dug into them within 5 minutes of them coming out of the oven!).

After the bars sit for a while the flavors mingle better. If you are anti coconut or a pineapple hater - this will work with dried fruit (think craisins, raisins, chopped dried apricots) or very well drained canned fruit. Recipe is easily halved for those with smaller appetites, smaller pans or smaller need for indulgence.

The pattern of oat use will probably continue - I like the crunchy goodness of oatmeal in lots of recipes.

In the spirit of full disclosure - I made corned beef hash for lunch using leftover corned beef from St. Patrick's Day. It was delicious, just shredded potatoes and shredded corned beef - cooked to crispy goodness. The picture I took looked absolutely repulsive! So think corned beef hash - good to eat not to photograph. Don't add a lot to the two ingredients - if your corned beef was well seasoned it'll flavor the hash just right.

Beautiful spring day here - DH finished wiring the chicken coop, put in perches/roosts and I think we are ready for the chicks! It is good on Buhlaland - full, tired and blessed beyond belief.

There is no particular reason for posting this picture of a goat kid we call Bandit - except he is very cute and cuteness counts!

Sprung or is it Spring?

I can tell when y'all are not paying attention to my ramblings because nobody told me the link to Conversion Diaries was not working! SORRY - it is a wonderful post about being grateful in the midst of our normally ungrateful business. As Chuck Swindoll sometimes prays over his congregation "dear Lord please make us all humbly grateful instead of grumbly hateful". Amen ( read a paraphrase of the word amen in scripture and it was Yes! Absolutely! - you can see how much I like exclamation points so it appealed greatly to moi! Amen )

I'm not sure if I'm sprung (as in my wires are sticking out all over like a cyborg badly assembled) or it is spring and I am simply working through spring (and hay) fever! The tiny star shaped wildflowers are wild onions. I'm grateful to live in a time we can buy Vidalias, Texas Super Sweet or Maui sweet onions - 'cause these little boogers taste more like bad garlic than onion. (Yes I've tried them). The other looks very like a chamomile but I'm too lazy to look it up in my Wildflowers of Texas guidebook. Speaking of my lazybones ------

Sorry I've been AWOL - actually more AWLYK (absent without letting y'all know). Just nothing worth saying past week - my life is still busy, I do laundry, make meals, run errands, go to bible study and answer emails. To my mind there hasn't been something particularly inspiring about which to blog. Yes I hated the way The Bachelor show turned out for so many reasons but didn't feel compelled to push my thoughts upon you. American Idol is boring my hiney - where do all these borderline psychotics hide during the day? Kindness - no thanks I'll just be snarky about damaged and unhappy young people trying to pursue their craft. See - I'm not a worthy vessel recently.

The verse upon which I'm meditating in two different wordings.

Proverbs 3:5-8 (New Living Translation)
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding.

6 Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.
7 Don’t be impressed with your own wisdom. Instead, fear the Lord and turn away from evil. 8 Then you will have healing for your body and strength for your bones.

Proverbs 3:5-8 (The Message)
5-12 Trust God from the bottom of your heart; don't try to figure out everything on your own.Listen for God's voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; he's the one who will keep you on track.Don't assume that you know it all. Run to God! Run from evil!Your body will glow with health, your very bones will vibrate with life!

I need to seek God's will and not pay attention to the junk I've piled up in my brain storage compartment. In lifetimes past (seems each of the 4 reinventions of Linda Sue started me over from nearly zero) I relied on what I knew - I was smart even educated but lacking wisdom. I certainly did not seek God's will. Bruised and battered - weakening in my bones - hmmm sounds SO familiar. Being still and knowing He is God is a big change for me. Since I've been with DH my hearing isn't as good as it used to be (so watch out all you kids - that rock music will ruin yer hearing - oops - the weird old lady slipped out again!) I mean my spiritual hearing wasn't good and we've worked together on my hearing aids. I spend more time in the bible and prayer and less time being "amused". Hard to believe that last statement when I babbled on about TV shows isn't it? We don't "go to movies", we do rent DVDs, we don't have cable or satellite TV but we do own an HDTV (in full disclosure - two HDTVs), we have many books and we spend a great deal of time outside. So am I justifying what I do for entertainment? Not really 'cause I'm OK with both the amount of time spent and the pursuits. Back off the rabbit trail to the topic at hand ----- if only I recall -------Oh yeah - loving the Lord and seeking His will.

SO - what does all this malarkey and ten cents buy you? not a thing. I'm rambling on about my hesitation to blog. You stalwarts who have waded through my mishmash of thought can grasp WHY I didn't blog for a week now. I have been reading blogs, not commenting as much as usual, and visiting bloggers I haven't seen for a long while. I recommended this blogger back on Valentine's Day and she has moved to BeliefNet. From Amy's blog I ventured back to Conversion Diary. Oh fickle hearted reader I am - I had totally forgotten what a blessing it is to read well written love letters from a new believer to our God. Just this past Tuesday in my occasional bible study we talked about the church at Ephesus (check out Revelation chapter 2)which had forsaken her first love. Coincidink? I believe there are no coincidences. I do not recall the precise moment when I accepted salvation. I have a good idea of when I recognized Christ as my Lord and Savior and it wasn't all that long ago.

If you ask me what I've been doing - I'll say this or that or the other. But don't ask me where I've been - it can be a dusty twisty trail. I'm here on Buhlaland - it is good and I'm grateful for grocery lists (to grasp my reference you need to check Conversion Diary). Bless y'all

Menu-less?

You'd think with all these cookbooks, notebooks of recipes, boxes of recipes on cards, stacks of magazines with recipes - yep you'd think I could plan menus. I do so passionately plan for big events - company coming and I'm all over the lists with an OCD passion. I am confessing now - Linda Sue is NOT a planner. No big surprise for people who've read my ramblings - I tend to be more a pinball than a bullet. I bounce off things and then ding - on to something else. A now increasing need for exercising budgetary responsbility (in other words - quit blowing money) I am considering, seeking guidance and generally agonizing over a simple task of planning MENUS. Yep - write down what we'll eat for days in a row , as in not wait until the day of a meal and think "what sounds good", running to the store (which is such a lie - I don't run anywhere - I get in a vehicle and drive the 6 miles or so to the store) for the missing special ingredients and making more food than two people can eat in two days.

I'm seeking counsel from all you well organized, plan makin', list keepin' folks. How did you get started making menus? How rigid are you about eat this now? Please keep in mind - there are just two of us in the house, I can cook anything, won't eat liver or snails (yes I've tried them) and need to lose some weight. Picky gal aren't I?

Now we're through pretending I'm a grown up - we can go on to more interesting topics. Yes I had a lovely birthday - our dear friends once again decorated the front gate ala last year's surprise . DH took the afternoon off and we went into FW. Did some Costco shopping and picked up prepared food at Central Market and came home to a luscious dinner. Still discussing what to do about next dog. We got excited about puppies we found online at a rescue place only to discover two unpleasant facts - it wasn't really a rescue more of a front to sell expensive dogs and evidently real human people pay $900 for a puppy! Holy moley - I understand there are costs in raising puppies but I am sure most countries in the world raise CHILDREN on less than $900 for their first two months of life. Still researching and discussing. Without my dear tiny MIL in our household anymore (yes we miss her terribly) we want a large dog (couldn't have a big dog due to stairs and canine exuberance being a bad potential for injury)- perhaps a Catahoula. We are planning to see a litter of catahoulas (DH has had one before) next Saturday the 28th - praying for clear guidance from the Lord about what to add to our family. (No children means our 4 legged companions ARE family).

Today might be the day DH is done with cabinetry project he has worked on for so long. Bless his heart the list of projects around here keeps growing. I am interested in keeping egg laying, fertilizer making chickens and waiting to see if he will build a coop this year. My sweet DH is blessed with too many abilities and not enough time!

Garden season totally upon us - today it is too cold and windy to be outside (wimp , yes I am). We have many bags of soil and containers awaiting me in the side garden. Going to use everything capable of holding soil for containers this year, appears we will have a very low rainfall year so it is a good time to do containers.

Ramble much? Yes I do thank you very much. Wanted to express my gratitude for being blessed with reasonably good health at my age, working on spiritual growth and reducing physical growth so much! I have faith, a very good husband, a home I love, great friends and though I see decrease in my abilities each year I am:

Taking Heart
2 Cor.4: 16Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.

'nuff said - I'll appreciate any menu starting ideas - just keep that liver stuff to yourself OK?

We may have to stage an intervention

I CAN NOT STOP TAKING PICTURES OF BABY GOATS! - now I've confessed it and y'all can choose to accept me as I am or condemn me for the goat fool I've become. I was out in the pen this morning feeding our bottle boy and the little thief of milk, laughing out loud (like a total loony). All 18 baby goats are running, jumping, colliding with one another, checking whether the other does will let them stop for a snack (nope). It feels like a wave of joy in being alive when I'm with them. Our weather helps also - winds are out of the south - humid, warmer and the smell is a perfume to this gal. Our air smells all earthy, full of promise and teasing with hints of flowers to come. Yep - it is GOOOOODDD on Buhlaland today. If you can't stand goats any more - I'll try to find something else to talk about. I must admit - having had a heavy heart for several months now it feels as if I'm given a spiritual caffeine blast. How can I be sad when proof of God's intense love for all His creation (and creatures) is literally at my feet? 'nuff philosophy - I need to get busy with some human work so I can sneak out there one more hour to take -- pictures of baby goats ----aaargh!

Simplifying - why is it complicated?

This morning's devotional from David Jeremiah was a great reminder of a goal I have - to simplify my life - getting more stuff does not make life simpler.
You cannot serve both God and Money.Matthew 6:24 (NIV)
A Quaker watched as his new, wealthy neighbor unpacked truckloads of furniture, clothing, and decorative items. He then went to greet the man and said to him, “Neighbor, if thee hath need of anything, please come to see me and I will tell thee how to get along without it.”

I am going to print this off and post it on my prayer board. It will help when I get internet offers of things to make my life better, faster, slimmer, healthier, smell minty fresh or give me lower electric bills and the ability to impress people everywhere.

Yeah right - money is a tool not a master. I tend to obscure that thought when a new shiny sparkly framus dingus shows its costly head around Buhlaland. Just walk on by - my new shopping theme song?

More of the Dallas World Aquarium

Subtitled: surely you didn't think you'd get off without seeing at least a few more of the 133 pictures I took at the Dallas World Aquarium!

Didn't want to disappoint any of you checking hourly on my blogging (oh that's right I'm NOT the one giving away anything so y'all are dropping by out of sheer kindness - thank you!).You cannot go wrong with a blog post including giant clams, spotted freshwater rays, assorted reef fish, sawfish, big octopus, and penguins. Topping it all off - a manatee going in for a few more slices of sweet potato and going for them against a very aggressive turtle.

Seems like a long time ago already - but fun times are treasured here on Buhlaland. Our trip to DWA was fun. Bless y'all