WE WERE NOMINATED!!! WE ARE KNOWN!!!

     Miss Woodhouse, from Notes From a Hartfield Girl (https://notesfromahartfieldgirl.blogspot.com/), nominated Grace and I with the Leibster Award!!!  Thank you so much, Miss Woodhouse!  

Here we go!

Acknowledge the blog that gave it to you and display the award.

The lovely Miss Woodhouse from Notes from a Hartfield Girl!

Answer the 11 questions that the blogger gives you.

 (Katherine/Grace)

1.) Are you an Introvert or an Extrovert? Katherine - Extrovert:) Introvert

2.) Describe your fashion sense in three words- Modest, Stylish, Feminine. I don't know!

3.) Who is your current, or most recent, celebrity crush? (Mwahahaha) Oh, I'm far above such trivial things....welll.....oh, alright!  We are watching Sense and Sensibility right now, so perhaps Edward Ferrars; he counts as a celebrity right???? Why are you so mean to us? William Holden and Steve McQueen.

4.) Do you like social media, or is it a waste of time in your opinion?  I like to stay connected with friends/family, so for that reason I like the opportunity Social Media gives.  But I do think that too much is not healthy, and a waste of time.  Currently, I am not on social media and I do think it can be a waste of time and that it is geared to be a look-at-me-and-tell-me-how-great-I-am venue, BUT that does not mean it isn't a good way to connect with people.

5.) Are you a Planner, or a Pantser, (or mayber a Plantser) when it comes to writing?  Oh yes, I plan, plot and connive on a regular basis. Not really, I tend to have a spur of the moment idea that sounds like the best thing since soft spread butter and then I get a few pages in and have no idea what I am doing or why I thought this was a good idea in the first place and then trash it so, no, I am not a Planner! 

6.) Do you prefer milk chocolate, or dark chocolate (And if you say you don't like chocolate, I shall think you very odd indeed)  Milk Chocolate!!  I love chocolate!  :)  Yay, I'm not odd!! :) Milk chocolate all the way!!!

7.) If you could do anything you wanted for a career, without having to worry about money or anything like that, what would you do?  I would start a Theater troupe, writing and performing it's own plays!  I would absolutely ADORE doing that!! Either be an actress or open a living historical farm/ camp where little or big kids could come and spend a week or a couple of days, completely immersed in a time period, probably somewhere in the 1800's.

8.) What's the most recent book you read and what was your opinion of it?  We were just reading Moving Mountains by John Eldridge; I highly recommend it! Rainbow Island by L.M. Montgomery. It was awesome and I hope have such an interesting and imaginative family/children!

9.) Do you prefer skirts/dresses, or jeans?  Skirts and Dresses! Skirts and Dresses!

10.) Current favorite singer? I don't really have a single favorite :) It's a toss up between Hadley Fraser and Ramin Karimloo.

11.) If you could trade places with a fictional character for a day, who would it be and why? Only a day???  Okay, I guess I would get homesick.  Anne Shirley, so I can be around Gilbert, of course! Only one character??? Grace O'Malley, from The Pirate Queen Musical, so I could fight for God and Ireland and have Tiernan always by my side, no matter what.

Give 11 random facts about yourself.

1. What counts as random....I daydream of Buttercream frosting! I squealed for a good 5 minutes when I saw we were nominated, I love you Miss Dashwood!!!

2. My family has a connection to the Von Trapp family. Our great- greandmother taught some of the Kennedy boys French!

3.  My siblings were watching The Sound of Music while waiting for dear little me to arrive at the birthing center, and by coincidence I love that movie/play! I desperately love to dance and sing and sing while I am dancing!!!

4. Grace keeps criticizing my answers! I am both amazed and terrified by water! 

5. I love to re - read books (you know, just the good parts). I like to go to my room, sit at my desk, put on some inspirational music and stare at a blank piece of paper for a while, philosophizing about all the great things that have come from a blank piece of paper and what I could put down on said piece of paper and then I start writing and... well... let's just say the trash fills up quickly!

6.  I don't really see what the big deal is about....dare I say it?  Star Wars.  'Don't spear me!', (Sid the Sloth, Ice Age) Me and Katherine at the moment are quoting and singing songs from our childhood VHS tapes like Kingsleys Meadow and Little Bear and Geo Kids!

7.  I laugh at my own jokes...even when no one else does.  I used to want to walk down the isle at my wedding to the theme from Phantom of the Opera! ( I'll probably do it at the rehearsal!)

8. If you are telling me something, my face tends to mirror whatever emotion you are conveying. I absolutely adore reading books.

9. I love, love, love to hairdress!  (I daydream about hairdressing too!) My real name ~gasp~ comes from a plant that is a cure for maddness!

10. I love rain, and stormy weather. I was the first black-haired baby in a den of red heads and my mother called me a papoose!

11. I crochet (or as we like to dub it - krotchett)! I can be very jumpy and am a screamer!

Nominate 11 blogs.

1.  Jessie @ The Butterfly Moments

2. Naomi @ Wonderland Creek

3. Eva @ Classics And Craziness

4. Rachel @ Hamelett's Soliloquy

5 Lyssa @. An Attempt to be Classic

6. Ariel @ Scribes And Archers

7. Elanor @Musings of a Jane Austen Wannabe

8. Ann @ Ann Without an E

9. Mary Liz @ Sunshine and Scribblings

10. Catherine Hawthorne @ Working By Candlelight

11. Heidi @ Along the Brandywine

Give them 11 questions to answer.

1. What is your favorite quote?

2. Share you're most used recipe?

3. Are you a writer, and do you have any published works?

4. What are some of your hobbies?

5. Are you a fan of musicals?

6. What fond family traditions would you like to continue when you get married and start a family? Or if these           joyous series of events have already arrived, what have you implemented already?

7.  What is one particular character trait that you would like to train your future/present children in?

8. What is a boy's and girl's name that you like?

9. Tell us a favorite joke?

10. Recommend three books?

11. What is a period drama you love?

Big Doin's at Green Gables!

     For as long as I can remember we've had a family joke of getting a pool. When we lived in PA, we had a 40 degree-all-year-long pond on our property, as well as a big pond our neighbors let us swim in, so we had no real need for a pool. When we moved to MO, we bought a property that has 2 ponds, but well....let's just say certain things such as mud, pond scum in mass quantities, slithering creatures, as well as a lack of rain, have transformed both those ponds into glorified mud puddles! Katherine, Mamma, and I have been after Papa to invest in a backyard pool, so finally....WE HAVE A POOL!!!!! We haven't set it up yet, but we still have a POOL!!!

     In other, calmer news, our garden is going great guns! Our pumpkins and long necked squash are taking over the other raised beds, climbing up the tomato plants and down the other side. The tomato plants are producing very well; I made salsa yesterday with tomatoes and peppers from the garden and we are planning on making Chocolate Zucchini Muffins with....you guessed it - the zucchini!  After gardening for 19 years with my mother, I finally realize what she has been telling me all these years about how good it feels to grow and use your own food. It's awesome!

     ~Later~  Did I say it's awesome??? The end result aka. food is, but as they say - getting there is half the fun. Ladies and Gentlemen, I munch on cucumber and drink smoothie and take laptop in hand to tell you of the shocking events that transpired after I wrote that paragraph above:
     There I was, innocent as can be, finishing my breakfast and writing a blog post, when Papa entered the house and asked if I would help him redo some fencing. I gladly said yes, as we had been needing to do it for some time. We worked for about 20 minutes and completed the task. I returned to the house and my mother, for I knew we had a lot of cooking to do. As I gulped down leftover coffee and a quart of water she informed me that we needed to go out to the garden harvest a bunch, and I mean a bunch, of cabbage, peppers and broccoli. What can I do, but follow her lead? So we head out, in the heat of the day no less, and she pulls out two jugs of bug spray that I am to spray onto the tomato plants. Now, when we first moved here we went to an auction and bought a green hand pump garden sprayer that goes on your back, so we pour the bug juice in there and I go to work on the pump building up pressure. The pressure is all built up and we try the nozzle and nothing comes out.  We check to see if the nozzle is blocked....no it is not. Is the pressure build up thing working??... Yes.  Papa comes over and we conclude the hose must be blocked, so we take it off creating a geyser eruption from the built up pressure....right in Papa's face (!)....yes the pressure build up thing is definitely working! After 5 minutes, we conclude that the hose is not blocked and that the nozzle is adjustable and we had it on too tight, so nothing was really wrong after all! We pumped up the pump, and I hoisted it onto my back and felt like something out of si-fi movie. Papa said I looked like a ghost-buster! So I said "Who you gonna call? The Bug Buster!" Genius right?! I entered the natural sauna of the greenhouse and proceeded to spray bugs. The oddest thoughts enter your mind when you are spraying bugs....."Imagine if I made a blog post about a call to arms for all gardeners against bugs in the style of Mayor Shin from The Music Man....How in the world did I know that ghost-busters quote?.....How hot is it really in here?  120 degrees....You know Katherine was right when she said how nice it would be if you could shrink yourself so you could fit into a five gallon bucket, treating it like a pool; imagine diving off lily pads and riding frogs....♭Old Macdonald had a farm, e i e i o♭.....It is too hot out here, we should go in." So I go outside and tell Mamma we should go in before the heat gets to us (Ha, before). She agrees and we go in looking like a couple of muddy puddles ourselves! So, all those out there who are avid gardeners, I feel your hot, sticky, sweaty pain! More power to you, keep up the good work, 'cause you know what?  You can always come into the air conditioning when your done and eat a cucumber!!!

Adios,   

   Grace!