Frailty of Life

Life is so precious...

    never take it for granted...

          please...I'm pleading with you...

   Why does it take a tragedy for us to remember how fragile life is?  It is in those moments that we tell ourselves that we are small, insignificant, and unimportant in the grand scheme of things...but that is so far from the truth.

   The past month and a half have been very difficult for my family.  My grandmother, Meme, was admitted to the hospital on January 8th.  She was in the ICU for 35 days, before passing peacefully from this world into the waiting arms of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  Though not in the way we hoped, the Lord still answered our prayers...instead of giving the gift of momentary healing, he gave the gift of eternal healing.  She now worships at the feet of the Savior, experiencing a joy and happiness that I can barely even begin to imagine!    

Tiny the Turtle

Saturday evening, one of my brothers found this little guy~~

My family was at an "end of the year" celebration, that our local homeschool group was hosting, when my brother almost stepped on the little guy.  Just sitting on the asphalt, in the middle of a parking lot, getting scorched to death!

Cala Lillies

     I took these pretty pictures two years ago, when I nannied for the first time.  The wonderful family I traveled with, was attending a pastors convention in San Diego, CA. and let me just say...it was beautiful!

Not only was the scenery wonderful, but the preaching services held each night were an encouragement for many.  

~Christmas Baking~~Peanut Butter Balls~

(This is not my image--I lost the original source.)

~Peanut Butter Balls~

  ~Ingredients

       ~ 2 Cups Creamy Peanut Butter

          ~ 1/2 Cups Butter

          ~ 4 Cups Powdered Sugar

          ~ 3 Cups Rice Krispies**  

          ~ 2 Cups Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

         ~ 1/2 Block of Paraffin Wax, Chopped into Small Pieces(this keeps the chocolate from melting so quickly and getting all over your hands, while you eat the finished P/B Balls.)  =)

Blackberry Jelly

     This summer my Grandparents blackberries did extremely well.  I went and picked twice, getting about 2 gallons each time.  That is my only regret...that I did not go and pick more!
   
     So, how do you use 4gal. of blackberries---Eat them fresh, make blackberry cobbler, or a smoothie???
My choice(and my Mom's) was to make jelly.  This looked like a blog post in the making, so of course pictures were taken throughout the entire process.

A Happy Day!

           I had a really exciting day Tuesday.  To get things started, it was my 18th birthday(that by itself was exciting), the next thing was that I got to vote.  I turned 18 and voted for the very first time, all in the same day!!!!  I've been waiting to exercise that right for the last few years.  The only disappointing thing was that only 10% of Kentuckians decided to join me.  Too many people take this privilege for granted, if we aren't careful we'll lose it, just like so many other countries. Enough with the politics. =)
              The third awesome thing, was that another kid was added to the Bolin Family.........

                                                  

                                                       .................a goat "kid" that is.

Meet Buttercup

 Buttercup is a Pygmy goat.  At 2 months of age she stands  about 18in. from the top of her shoulders. Her coat is a mix of dark and light gray, with a small amount of brown mixed in. Over all she's adorable!                                                   

                                                                                                

         All in all, I had a tremendous birthday.  My family was a big part of making it so awesome.

           That reminds me, I haven't introduced the beautiful family that God has given me. Let's start at the beginning, with my Dad(Scott) and Mom(Devonne).  They'll be celebrating their 19th anniversary this July. I have been blessed to have them as my parents. I've been homschooled from Kindergarten through 12th grade.  You can be sure that there were times when they didn't want to put up with my schooling anymore( over me and my attitude), but they stuck with it because they knew that this is what God wanted.  After that comes me and my 10 siblings. Yep, you read that right, there are 11 of us kids!  I am the oldest at 18, then it goes LilSis~16, LilBro~15, LilBro~14, LilBro~12, LilSis~11, LilSis~9, LilSis~7, LilSis~4, LilSis~3, and LilSis~11mon. 

  That's enough for tonight. I'm going to try and post at least every three days.  So keep an eye out for new posts.

  

The First Piece of My Patchwork

    For some time I have wanted to start a blog, but wasn't sure what to name it and truthfully just had not taken the time to get one started.  Until last night!  With my Momma's help I settled on "Simple Patchwork Prose", because my life is a patchwork made up of many pieces(God, Family, Church, 4H, Hobbies, etc.) and when I write about a "piece", I'll use prose to describe how its part of the patchwork. 
    Before, when I heard the word "prose", I always thought that it was a type of poetry. I decided to look it up last night. The following is the definition of prose from the "1828 American Dictionary of the English Language" by Noah Webster: "Prose, n. 1. The natural language of man; language loose and unconfined to poetical measure, as opposed to verse and metrical compisition."  I couldn't think of a better way to write, when describing the day-to-day happenings and passions of life.