Today

Hello everyone!

Today is a busy day.  My niece is coming over for a couple of days and I'll be picking her up.   She actually arrived in Nebraska on Tuesday and has been visiting a friend for the past 2 days.  She's never been here before so I'm a little excited to have her see our town and house.  And I am hoping that she will tell my folks how lovely this area is so that they'll finally move out here!

Today, I also have a vet appointment for the kitties.  It's shot time.  I've already brought out the crates so they won't suspect anything when I pick them up to cuddle them this morning.  I can get them easily and then slide them into the crates.  Once they are in them they are fine.  It's the getting them that can be a challenge.  Then I will bring them back and then head  back out to get my niece.  And together we will do a little shopping at the Base since that is where her friend lives.

Today, I will do a little more re-arranging around the house.  I cleaned and picked up and tried to do some last minute organizing.  Which actually means, I've put things away where they don't necessarily go but I'm in a mad frenzy to get the place looking decent.  Does anyone else do that or is it just a lazy me thing?  Anyhow, I'm sure I'll be walking around the next couple of months trying to find that "thing" that was sitting on my desk the last time I looked and I'll be tearing the house apart undoing all the hard work I did the last few days, because I shoved that "thing" into some closet or drawer!  Blah.

Today, my hand hurts.  Yup, my fingers are hurting because I'm getting old and I have arthritis.  All that cleaning and picking up makes my fingers hurt.

Today, I will be putting the final touches, i.e. making the beds up, for the other guest bedroom which will be occupied by First Born, Dilly-Girl and the grand babies, tomorrow!!!  I rearranged the bedroom so it will be able to accommodate their 2 dogs and cat as well.  It will be a "cozy" little arrangement.  We are SO excited to spend time with them!!!  The grand babies are no longer babies, they are 3 & 4 and I have missed them LOADS!

There is so much more that I need to get done today, but I will put it off for a few days (luckily, they are things that can be put off!) We'll spend time with my niece and then settle the grand babies and Dilly-Girl and animals and then I will tackle those other things.

Right, I will end this now so I can do a few last minute tidying up and then take the kitties to the vet and then...

The rest of today, I will just enjoy my time with my niece.

I hope your today will be everything you want it to be.  If you have a long to do list, take 10 minutes out of the day and sit down with a cup of tea/coffee and relax, breathe and make a "10 things I'm grateful for" list in your head.  Trust me, you'll feel ever so much better for it!

Have a wonderful day.

Full house...

Hello all,

I am back and possibly using this blog as a means of procrastinating.

Imagine that!  There is so much to do and SO little time left to get them all done!  But, it is all good!

 My niece is visiting us for the first time ever!  She will be spending a couple days with us and possibly "scouting" the area for my father.  He has talked about moving out here and my Mother is all for it, but, I really don't think he wants to actually move.  Anyhow, I hope that my niece will tell him what a marvelous area we live in and then he'll decide to make the move.  One can hope.  So, she will be here and will be able to spend one day with...

 Our son and his family who will arrive the day before my niece leaves! They are coming here for Christmas!  Dilly-Girl  will arrive with the two grandkids and two dogs and one cat the day before my niece leaves.  (The last time they spent time together was when our grandson was born, 4 years ago!)   And because the A's are in the middle of a move (from Alaska to Florida) all the animals will be moving with them!  Our Son will be coming at a later date since he is bringing the car so that they can drive the rest of the way to their final destination.  He is leaving Alaska by way of the Ferry to Seattle and then driving here.  Prayers of safe travels would be greatly appreciated for all!

 Our daughter,  Son-in-law and their daughter will arrive on Christmas Eve and will probably bring their dog along as well and if they do... we will have 4 dogs (don't forget, we also have a dog) 3 cats (we also have 2 cats) 3 grandkids and 6 adults here for Christmas!  How marvelous is that!?

 As you can see, we will have a full house.  I am excited and nervous at the same time.  I am planning on enjoying the family and not worrying about everything!  I will get done what I can get done and leave the rest.  It's not everyday I get to spend time with both of my kids and their families all at the same time!!!  And by golly, I'm gonna enjoy it while I can!

 So, I hope that you all have the very best Christmas, enjoying all that life has to offer and I will return on the new year of 2015.

May God fill your heart with peace and joy

Ready, get set, SNOW!

Hello everyone!

We got snow!  I suppose by now most of you who get snow has gotten their first snow fall as well.  Ours was on Tuesday and we woke up to a lovely dusting of white.  What a wonderful way to wake up!  Since then we haven't gotten anything significant, just little flakes here and there, but OH MY GOODNESS it's gotten cold here!  This morning it is 19 degrees and windy!

Anyhow...  There hasn't been much in the way of excitement around here.  My friends and I have been trying to get back into an exercise routine.  We go out to the base where there is a HUGE gym, three times a week.  We individually work out doing what ever it is that we like and then the last 15 minutes we do something together.  So far, it's been just stretching, but eventually, we will do things like play a little tennis, or racquetball or do a little competitive rowing.  There are 4 of us and none of us know how to play tennis or racquetball, but it's never too late to learn...right?!  ;-/

The holiday hustle & bustle is gearing up!  This year (or has it always been the case and I've just not noticed..) it seems that the stores have geared up for Christmas in record time!  I was trying to get ready for Halloween and I'm seeing Christmas things everywhere!  What is going on!  Now I'm working on getting ready for Thanksgiving, although, our daughter is hosting our Thanksgiving again this year, I have promised to do a couple of things... dinner rolls and a pie or two.  It's nice not having to do it all and to see things done a little differently by the younger generation!  ;-)  And, this also means we'll have a little more free time to play with Little "M" which is a very good thing!

Well, this is just a short one.  I hope you are all doing well and are enjoying the hustle & bustle of the holiday season!

~J~

Where have I been...?

Hello anyone!

It has been an extremely long time since my last post.  Part of the reason is, I've been lazy about sitting down to write.  Another reason is because I've been having too much fun to sit down and write about it.  All in all, the reason seems to be that I've just not taken the time to write.  And for those of you who keep tabs on what is going on with me solely through this blog... I apologize.  And to reassure you all, life has been very good to me and my family!  So good in fact that I just kept going on and on living my full life!  So....

The main good news is that we have a new little one in our family!  Our Baby Girl & Darling Drew had a little girl this year.  Little "M" is SUCH a cutie!  She is 7 months old and already crawling and is such a happy, smiling baby all the time!  BG & DD recently purchased a house of their own and it is a lovely "old" house, much like our own only they have a much larger property!  So much so that they are able to install a fire pit near the back of their yard and still have plenty of room to play yard games!  Which they did a couple of weeks ago when we went to visit them during their towns annual Maple Leaf Festival weekend.  We enjoyed walking around and seeing all the vendors and food stalls and Carnival rides!  And then we were present for the first lighting of the fire pit at which time we also christened the fire pit with Smore makings!  YUM!!  And when the sun had gone down, they played Bocce Ball with balls that lit up!  I had no idea there were such things!  What a fun weekend!

The other good news is that First Born & Dilly-Girl and children will be moving back to the lower 48!  And I call it the extreme move since they are moving from Anchorage Alaska to Miami Florida! And they are doing it in the winter months!  From snow to sand!  ;-) WE are SO EXCITED to have them at a more accessible location.  Although... As some of you may know, Florida is not my favorite state.  But, I will go there because my favorite "A's" will be there!

Honey and I have been doing some traveling this year.  Nothing fancy, mainly to feed my knitting & wool spinning habit.  We went with Brother-in-law (BRIL-R) & Sister-in-law (SIL-K) to Colorado twice!  Once, in May, to Estes Park for the Wool Festival and spent the weekend at a cabin right outside the park, what a fantastically, wonderful time that was!  SIL-K, niece and I went to the festival and saw all kinds of animals and wonderful fibers and yarns!  And BRIL-R and nephew took photo's of my Honey while he rode down the mountain at the park!  He was practicing for his big bike ride later in the year called "The Triple Bypass"!  Anyhow, he enjoyed his altitude ride and BRIL-R also took care of all the food shopping, cooking and Ricky sitting for us!  Then we went back to Colorado, for the actual Triple Bypass bike ride in June!  And BRIL-R & SIL-K came along for the weekend, to help with shuttleing bikes & Ricky sitting and SIL-K & I went yarn and Fiber shopping.  She is an avid knitter and she has the memory of an elephant and helps me find things that I have forgotten I wanted!!!!!  ;-)  Then, in September we met up with them again and spent the day at yet another fiber related event in Mitchell, NE.  The boys went mountain trail hiking and site seeing and SIL-K and I went fiber shopping as well as a little site seeing with the boys.  All in all a most wonderful time was had at every location!  (a little side note, we will be doing the Estes Park Wool Festival again in 2015, and this time I promise to take pictures!  I was SO overwhelmed last time that I forgot!)

Another trip, taken by Baby Girl & myself this year, was to California.  We flew out with Little "M" and visited my folks as well as several other long time friends and family!  We spent some time in San Fransisco, Muir Woods, Davis, Vacaville, Fairfield & San Rafael.  It was whirlwind visit but we got everything done that we had planned including a four generational photo shoot with my mom, me, Baby Girl and Little "M"!

So, looks like we'll be staying close to home for a while at least.  I can get back to my spinning & knitting and plan for my next jaunt to wool fun in January!  Who says there is nothing in Wamego, KS?!  (Winter Woolfest 2015)

I hope that this wasn't too terribly boring for you all.  I am SO into spinning and knitting these days that I can promise nearly all my posts in the future will having something about those two subjects!  And I will be posting pictures of yarn made by me! ;-)

Thanks for hanging in there with me!  I do believe there is more to come so keep this blog on your list!  Have a wonderful day!

A little bit of craziness....

Hi all!

I hope that all of you are doing better than I!  I am a procrastinator from waaaaay back!  I can hold off doing something for a very long time. I've told myself for many years that "I work best under pressure".  Not really, it's just what I've had to do in order to actually get things done.   I'm not proud of that.   It's a terrible habit and I pray that one day I will learn to do better.  But, so far, well, I've not figured out how to change.

I have been sewing (yes, sewing!) for the past few days.  I made Quillows for my grandchildren and my nephews and niece.  I cranked out 5 Quillows in three days!  I amazed myself.  But don't you all get all happy for me.  It wasn't a difficult item to make.  All straight stitching on a two yard fabric, batting and an 18 inch square.  You put it together and then stitch a few stitches here and there with some thread and voila!  Little quilts that fold into pillows.

So then I wrapped all the gifts that I have going to Alaska and California and then hauled everything out to the FEDEX store.  I thought for some strange reason, that it would be cheaper.  NOT!  And to top it off, they tore the wrapping on my gifts as they were trying to pack them in a larger box!  When they told me what it would cost to send them to Alaska... well, I had them unpack that box so I could try to get them to the post office, and that is when I saw the torn wrapping.  UGH!  Anyhow,  finally managed to get everything sent out and they are on their way to their respective states!  If you want a shocker!  Read my tweet for today.  Crazy!

Now, I'm going to work on a few gifts that I need to finish by Christmas eve.  And I have a few other little tidbits that I have sew up for a few friends.  I hope I can get them done.  I'm also working on a few Christmas cards that have a little knitted something that goes with it.  I got this idea from two different ladies on Youtube.  Check it out!

Very Pink Knits 

 K Werner Design

I watch Staci's channel often.  I learn something new from her all the time!  And this is the first time I've gone to K Werners channel.  She certainly made me feel like I too could make these cute little cards.  So, there you go.  Check them out, maybe you'll find more things of interest on these two channels.

I need to get busy if I'm going to complete anything else I've yet to get done.  I hope you all are ahead of the "holiday" game and are able to enjoy the true meaning of Christmas!

Like Seinfeld... about nothing

Hello everyone!

First let me say, I hope you all had a marvelous Thanksgiving!  We had a wonderful one with our Baby Girl and Darling Drew!  It is so wonderful to be able to go to their home and see the beautiful job of cooking the Thanksgiving meal being done by your wonderfully grown up child and her Darling.  I would have taken pictures of her table with all the wonderful food on it, but we got a little too eager to enjoy the feast and I forgot.   We are so fortunate to be able to live as close to them as we do.  One down, one to go!  ;-)

So,  welcome to the post about nothing.  Yes, I said nothing.  I'm not sure what is going on except that I do believe I am feeling quite overwhelmed with all that is needing to be done this month.  So much so that I just can't seem to get motivated to do anything at all!  So here I sit, using my blog as a procrastination tool.  Telling myself I am actually doing something that needs to be done instead of doing something that is the least necessary item on my terribly long list of things needing to be done in the month of December!

I have sewing projects that still need to be completed.  (pffft, let's just tell it like it is, I haven't even started the projects!)  And those are projects that also need to be mailed off.  I haven't finished my knitted projects yet either.  Although, I must say, I'm closer to completing those more than the sewing.

And as late as Thanksgiving was... I still haven't put up any Christmas decorations yet.  I plan to do that tomorrow and Saturday.

So, this blog is about nothing that I've accomplished.  And about everything yet still to do.

I leave you now, in the hopes that I will accomplish one thing on my list before my next blog.

(wish me luck.)

A most lovely day...

Hello again.  What a wonderful day it is!  The sun is shinning and there is a dusting of snow on the ground.  I love waking up to snow, even a dusting!

 I know that this is only the beginning and that there will be more to come in the next few months and that makes me happy.  Of course there will be some of those people who will groan at this site.  And they won't enjoy my happy comments about the snow but that is okay.  It will be a pleasure to share my joy of snow with them and help them to see the beauty and wonder of it!  (or not... some people just can't be convinced)   And for those of you who think I don't do my part in the sweeping & shoveling of the snow...  I do!  Although, I do let my honey do the fun part which is using the snow blower!  (ha-ha)

There hasn't been much going on here since my last post.  Mostly trying to catch up on whittling down my Christmas List "to do" items.  I've been knitting up a storm and even trying out new stitch patterns!

There is a hat that goes with this.  Although, if I don't figure out how to finish the mitten top soon, there may only be a hat to gift!  This will be my first mitten.  Up until now, I've only done fingerless gloves.  Now I remember why.  ;-/

So, today, I will make a pot of stew and listen to some music and get to knitting!  I hope you all are having a most lovely day and I'll be back again soon!

What to do....

Hello everyone?  It's been so long since I last posted, I'm sure there isn't a soul who's going to be looking for a new post from me.  But, I'll take my chances and give this another try.

So much has been going on since my last attempt at a return blog posting.  And it's all been good, except for the part where I couldn't figure out how to post photos.  And I'm still not sure I'll be posting photos.  At this point I am just going to try to post words and see how that goes.

My family is doing well.  We've had visits from our First Born and Dilly-girl and the sweet grand babies, who are not so little anymore!  They are now three & two!  Amazing!  Baby Girl &  Darling Drew are together again.  Not sure if you all remembered but they were only able to spend time together on weekends and holidays because of their jobs.  But they have been reunited and are doing so well!  Honey and I actually spent a few days with them and it was so nice.  We hadn't done much of that lately and this month we'll get to spend time with them again over Thanksgiving!

My Honey is still working at the same job which he enjoys.  And when I say "same job" it's pretty surprising since he works as a contractor for a company in Offut.  First, it's a job that is under a contract and could easily and often not be renewed.  And secondly, after being in the Army and moving around and changing jobs, this is really quite nice to be able to have the same job and the same location for nearly 7 years!  We have NEVER lived anywhere that long!

So, what have I been doing since I last posted?  Well, I spent 5 weeks in Alaska this summer, one whole week with my Honey with me and the rest with my little ricky.  It was nice to be able to spend so much time with the kids and the grand babies.  Then I came home and it seemed like I hit the ground running.  I spent the rest of the summer helping in our Churches "Big Garden" and learned ALOT about growing & harvesting vegetables!   I also helped deliver to local church food pantries in our area. We are getting ready to deliver the sweet potatoes and brussle sprouts this Friday and then we'll be done with the garden for this season!  In September I started up the Fiber Ministry, Hearts to Hand, that I had begun last year.  We took a break over the summer and we meet up every Thursday evening.  We have three places/project we deliver to twice a year.  We knit (for the most part) 8x8 inch squares that will be sent off to a location in South Africa which then will be knitted together to form a blanket for orphan children with HIV.  We also knit up preemie hats, blankets and booties for our local NICU  and the last things are Chemo caps for the Cancer center.  We also have a girl who crochets a bunch of the baby items as well.  We gather everything together twice a year and have the blessed by our Pastor and congregation and then send them out to the various locations.  It's been such a blessing to be able to knit for good as well as for fun!  And I've gotten to meet new people in our community and get to know others even better.  I've also been doing a lot of personal knitting.  I'm working on Christmas gifts right now and I have to tell you all, I've actually knitted a few socks to completion!  And I'm not talking little kids socks, I'm talking socks for adults!  Namely me!  They are not perfect but they are wearable!

Woot!  I got the photo uploaded and here is my first pair of socks done with Magic Loop Toe up two at a time sock pattern!!!  I am still looking for a bind off that is more stretchy, but I used the Icelandic bindoff on these and they work better than your average bind off.  (one of the hazards of doing socks from the toe up is that the binding at the cuff is not very stretchy at all!)   I learned how to do the Icelandic bindoff from a Youtube channel called Very Pink Knits.  She has really great tutorials on knitting and quite often has segments on new or new to her stitches.  Love it!

I also made these!  Okay, disclaimer here.  I'm not very good at keeping track of patterns or yarn types! Heck, I can't even remember when I made these, but I did make these and may have even blogged it at one time, (that's how long ago I may have made them) but the reason I'm showing these to you all is because I actually used them in the garden this year.  They came in handy on one of those chilly (okay, cold) mornings when we had to pick green beans and I used them again when we harvested sweet potatoes!  When you pick green beans it's SO much easier to do with free fingers!!!  Anyhow, if you want the instructions for the these fingerless gloves, I could probably find them, but I can't guarantee it will be soon.  (just saying)

Okay, I think I'm done for now.  If these photos up load and the link works then I'll be one happy camper!  AND I'll probably start blogging on a more frequent basis now.  So, keeping fingers crossed... Until next time, you all have a great day and see you soon!

Renewing my blog page...

As the title announces, I am renewing my dedication to my blog page.  I haven't forgotten you all, although that may be difficult for you to believe since it's been ages and ages since my last post!  And for anyone that actually read my posts, I thank you for your loyalty and I hope that you will continue to visit my little blog from time to time because I really do enjoy sharing the things that go on in my little neck of the prairie with all my friends and family!

My good life is still very good!  And very busy!  But also very normal and perhaps to many, not so terribly exciting.  But it'a a good life and I am enjoying it very much.  As some of you know, my son and his family live in Alaska and my daughter and her husband live in KS.  They all are doing very well and recently had the opportunity to visit with each other.  My Baby-girl and her hubby went to Alaska for a week and went sightseeing with her older brother, Dilly-girl and grand babies  and spent a fun time with them all!  And I would normally add a photo of this event but I can't seem to figure out how to do that.  Not sure if it's my computer or if it has to do with the (ever better) Blogger.  But I do have lovely photo's of all of them together for the first time since a few christmas's ago!

In June our Son, Dilly-girl and grand-babies will visit us here!  (I hope to have figured out this photo upload by then).   And it will be so much fun!  They will be here in time to be in the Springfield Days Children's Parade, which I am leading again this year!  And we'll do all the fun things like going to the Omaha Zoo, and Laurenzen Garden, Soaring Wings Winery, and so on and so forth.  Then Son and Dilly-girl will go to K.C. and spend a weekend with Baby-girl and Son-in-law and Granddaddy and I will get to spend the whole weekend with our little Grand babies!  YAY!!!!!

Then...... at the end of July my Honey and I will go to Alaska and see more sights and do lots more exploring AND we'll get to be there for our grandsons 3rd birthday!  We are SO excited for all the fun to begin.  But in the mean time...  We will be working on getting our garden up and running again.  We've had some late snow fall and freezes so we haven't done much of anything in our garden and flower beds other than clean it up and till the soil in the garden bed.  We thought about planting rows of greens, but decided not to and now we are ever so glad we waited since that night we had a deluge of rain and it's been stormy off and on for the past week!  But, if all goes well, we hope to get those seeds in by next week.  And the serious gardening will not begin until after the 1st of May, which is not unusual for these parts!

I have been doing some knitting still.  I am currently working on another sock for myself.  It's a long slow process since I tend to work on it rather sporadically.  I have also started a Knitting Ministry in our church.  We knit together every other week for now and we have three organizations that we knit for.  The three projects are each for a different skill level which makes it very easy for anyone to join us.  And then, I recently purchased an antique spinning wheel.  It's a Canadian Production Wheel and it's designed to make lace weight and sock weight yarns.  Which is exactly the types of yarns I enjoy working with.  But, to make them is a whole other story!!!  I've been a bit frustrated with the learning process, but I keep telling myself that when these wheel's were made, little children were learning how to spin on just this type of wheel!  And if they could do it, then by golly, I can do it!  I'm beginning to believe, those children were MUCH brighter than me!  So, when ever I become too frustrated, I fall back on working with my drop spindle, just so I feel like I am being somewhat productive.  I've made one ball of single ply yarn and am working on another and hope to be able to ply the two together soon so I'll have a ball of working yarn to make mittens with (eventually).  My goal is to make thrummed mittens with my drop spindle yarn.  Perhaps you all can help me stay dedicated to that goal by asking me about it from time to time!  You know, to keep my on track.  ;-)  And my second goal is to make a ball of spinning wheel yarn by the end of the summer!

So, I will leave you all now to digest this first blog of this year.  I hope it wasn't too terribly boring and I hope to figure out the photo issues so that I will be able to post photo's in my next blog post.

I hope you all are doing well and I will write again next week!  Thank you all!

Have a wonderful day!

Some pictures y'all have missed...

Hello everyone!

Here I am again!  I've been gone SO long that I have TONS of things I want to share with you all!  My goodness, just yesterday I posted TWICE!!!

Today I'm going to post some pictures of our grand babies!!!  I missed out posting about our grandbabies there when I was absent from the blog.  So, here are just a few snippets of photo's that I would have posted had I not been a cranky computer owner!  (My main problem was a computer that didn't want to do what I wanted it to do AND having far too many things to get done in a day.)  

Mar. 2011

This was his "cheese" face.
2011

This is him in Aug. 2012

And here is little Aliza Grace Minori.

Born in Nov. 2011

I can't remember if I had blogged about the quilt.  I actually made that baby quilt and finished quilting it while I was in Seattle waiting for her to be born!  Nothing like sewing 'till the last minute!

And this is her in July 2012

         This is her walking, she is 9 months.

This is them in Jul. 2012

And there it is.  A very small snippet of what I would have posted had I not had a little tiff with my computer.  I would post pictures of them EVERYDAY if I thought I could get away with it (and if Dilly-girl would send me pictures everyday)!   But, I won't do that to you all.

Now all is good and I'm back to playing friendly with my computer so you can expect to find me blogging away every week!  You lucky people!  ;-)

Have a fabulous day!

Knitting!

Hello everyone!

Just a short little post about this!

I actually knitted this sweater in three weeks!  To me that is paramount to performing a miracle!   It's a pattern I had gotten when she was first born back in Federal Way, WA.  Unfortunately, the shop I purchased it from has since closed down.   And that is SO sad because those ladies were SO friendly and helpful and didn't ever make a novice like myself, feel bad about my lack of experience!  I knitted it with Mochi Plus by Crystal Palace Yarns in # 684 color way.  This was THE easiest pattern to follow and I LOVE the yarn!  So easy to work with!!!  Little Aliza wears it beautifully!  And the shirt is a K-State shirt that Baby Girl got her!  Now she's all set.

Oh, and Jess...  See, we only got one dressed too!  ;-)

Have a great day everyone!  

Busy, busy!

Hello everyone!  So, I feel like I had this whole, long, playfully relaxing vacation and then came home and it was go, go, GO!  There were Dr.'s appointments, check-ups, then the catching up of all the household things that didn't get done, (not because my honey did nothing, but because it's just one of those things where I like things done... okay, "my way").   Anyhow......  I've got the house sorta kinda caught up and then there is the yard.  I came back to a yard that looked pretty rough.  This drought is really messing with my grass and plants!  Not to mention all the poor farmers and cattle people around here!!!  Our water bill last month was KILLER!  And I've been dumping more water on the yard since I've been home.  We planted two trees last year and they are still a bit tender and need that extra bit of attention with the H2O.

On Saturday my neighbor and I got together to do some canning.  I had done some canning a few years ago but nothing since.  And my neighbor had never done any canning so she came over to see how it's done.  NOT, that I'm any kind of expert, or anything.  But I have done a bit more than she has.  So, we canned 8 jars of Adobo, 12 jars of Pickled Jalapeno, 9 sliced and 3 whole.  That took nearly the whole day.

  

Today I made pickled banana peppers. 

And once we get more red jalapeños, I'll make more Adobo!  My pantry looks so cool with all the jars I'm getting stacked up!  We have gotten LOTS of cherry tomatoes, but I've been freezing those.  I'm nervous about canning those.  The instructions on all the canned tomato recipes all talk about the hazards of canning tomatoes!  It freaks me out!!!  And I planted some shelling beans, black and pinto but I don't think I'll get enough to really do much with them.  I had a LOT of trouble getting any of my beans to grow.  We only had three green bean plants come up out of 16 planted.  And same with my peas (12 planted 0 came up) and I only had one Sugar Snap pea plant come up out of 12 planted!  Three black bean plants came up and two pinto plants.  Sad, so sad.  I had visions of little burlap bags full of black and pinto beans.  Oh well, maybe next year.

This past Monday, my honey and I went for a little ride out to Winterset, Iowa.  We took our cameras and Ricky,  to check out Madison County's covered bridges.  It was a beautiful day for taking photo's  and we had a lovely time.  It's been a while since we had gone out just the two of us and made a day of it.  It was really nice!  I believe we'll be doing more of that in the future for sure!

And here is little Ricky along for the ride.  He's really a very good traveller!  

So, that was our weekend.  Sort of.  There are always things  that need doing, as you all know,  but sometimes you just need to get up and do something fun!    Now, let me see what else I can 'can' this week!  ;-)

Have a wonderful week!

Can you believe it?....

Hello everyone!  It has been SO long!!!  So much has changed since my last post.  So, this will be a short post just to say, hi!  And to fill in the gap (highlights only) from my last post to this one!  And honestly, I will TRY to keep it short.  Those of you who know me, I tend to get a bit long winded when I'm trying to explain things!  ;-)

Here goes.....

I went to Seattle to visit with my son and daughter-in-law (aka dilly-girl) when she was pretty near to giving birth to their second child.  I spent a month with them and was with her when their daughter, Aliza Grace Minori, was born!!!  What a beautiful day that was!

I spent  nearly three weeks with that little girl and her brother.  Had the bestest time EVER!  And Granddaddy was able to visit for a week too!

Then the holidays arrived and with that, news that our son would be transferred to Alaska and then immediately be off to Afghanistan.  Plans were made for dilly-girl and kids to come stay with us and then the military put the kabbosh on that!  Rules and regulations.... Long story short, (see, I am capable of telling a short story...)  Dilly-girl and kids moved to Alaska in January of 2012 and our First Born stayed in rear detachment instead of going to Afghanistan!  YAY!  As much as we would have LOVED having the grandbabies and Dilly-girl living with us, we much preferred that they be able to be a family together!

Thennnnn, Dilly-girl had the opportunity to come back to the lower 48 funded by her wonderful Big sister,  Heather!  Dilly-girl and the kids went to where her sister lives and they were able to go visiting with family.  And we were included in that visit.  A surprise birthday visit for my Honey!  Heather baked a cake just for my Honey's birthday and Dilly-girl and the kids drove it to K.C. (the half-way point for them and us).  Baby Girl and Darling Drew were able to go to K.C. as well and they helped to facilitate the "lie" to get my Honey to go to K.C. without suspicion!

Big Sister

Happiest of Granddaddies!

I wish y'all could have seen the look on his face when he first realized that it was Dilly-girl and the kids at the hotel!  Priceless I tell you!

Baby-Girl finally met her Goddaughter

As did Darling Drew.   

We had a wonderful weekend with them and Baby-Girl and her hubby and our wonderful In-Law family John, Paula and Krista!  Truly a fabulous weekend!

And then, at the end of July I went to Anchorage to visit  with Our First Born and his family for 31 days!!!!  I took my Ricky along as well (he's such a seasoned traveller now).  I played and played with the kids and saw a bear out roaming around the housing area! I knitted a sweater for little Aliza and shopped and went sightseeing.  Oh and I saw a Moose too!  I ate Caraboo burgers and Reindeer Sausage and Moose Sausage and Fresh Wild caught Salmon!  Yummy, yummy, yummy!

All in all had the best time ever!  Of course there were tons of things that went on in between what I've described and today.  But, I did promise to keep it short, so......  ;-)

I will be back to blogging again on a more regular basis.  I've got loads of things I want to share with you all and lot's of new projects to make and do!  I have a special knitting project that I would like to get started on  as a remmemberance of my time spent in Alaska!  And lot's & lot's of other fun things!

So, stay tuned and I hope you enjoy a wonderful day!  ;-)

Chrysanthemums & bread machines

Hello everyone! I do believe Fall has arrived! The trees are losing their leaves, the chrysanthemums are blooming and the bread machine is back on the counter!

And to kick off this wonderfully cool weather, last night we had Beef & Barley stew and home made whole wheat bread!! Yup, the ice cream maker has been put away and the bread machine brought out. That is my way of saying, Fall is here and it's time for comforting warm foods for cold nights!

The beef & barley stew was just one of those made up things. You just sort of take stock of what you have and then chop, slice and use up. You really can't go wrong when you just wing it for stews and soups. And the thing I really like about making soups and stews is that you can let it simmer for hours and hours and it only makes it better at the end of the day!

But the best thing about Fall is the bread! I ADORE fresh baked bread! Straight out of the oven, sliced, buttered and oh my goodness! The bread crust is crunchy/chewy and the center of the bread is warm and buttery and slides down your throat! Oh my! Just thinking about it makes me want to go and cut another slice off and toast it and add a dab of jam on it!

Anyhowwwww. I have an old Sunbeam, 2lb. Expressbake bread machine. My honey got it for me way back in 1996 or maybe 97'. I didn't use it much back then. I wasn't a real big fan of bread machine bread. I didn't care for the way it looked when you took it out of the machine. And the texture always seemed to be off. But then I discovered the dough setting. That setting has totally changed my life! I now use that setting exclusively. Although I do have a Kitchen Aide mixer, I don't use it for making pizza crusts or bread doughs any longer. The bread machine kneads the bread and takes care of the first rise process with no hassles. And then I take out the dough and shape it and let it rise again and then bake it off. And it comes out perfect EVERY TIME!

Yesterday I made a whole wheat bread using a recipe that I had never tried before. I got it out of my "Bread Machine how to prepare and bake the perfect loaf" by Jennie Shapter, that Baby Girl gave me years ago! I followed the recipe, Light Whole-Wheat Bread, and then set it on the dough setting. When it was done, I took it out, shaped it and set it in the bread pan and let it raise again. Then I baked it at 400 degrees for 35 minutes.

For those of you who would like to make this bread here is the recipe. I'm not sure how you would go about adjusting it, if at all, for those who will not be using a bread machine. But if you are interested in making this bread here is the recipe.

Light Whole-Wheat Bread

1 3/4 cups water

3 cups whole-wheat bread flour

1 1/3 cups white bread flour

2 tsp. salt

2 Tbsp. granulated sugar

2 Tbsp. butter

1 1/2 tsp. rapid-rise active dry yeast

1 Pour the water into the bread machine pan. If the instructions for your bread machine specify that the yeast is to be placed in the pan first, rexerse the order in which you add the liquid and dry ingredients to the pan.

2 Sprinkle each type of flour over in turn, ensuring that the water is covered. Add the sal, sugar and butter in separate corners of the bread pan. Make a shallow indentation in the center of the flour and add the yeast.

3 Set the bread machine to the basic/normal setting, medium crust. Press Start.

*OR*

*Set the machine to dough setting at this point if you'd like to shape your own bread.*

At the end of the dough cycle. Turn out the dough and shape as you like it. Then set it aside in a warm place until dough doubles in size. At which time you may then place your bread in a pre-heated oven set at 400 degrees and bake for 30-35 minutes or until done.

For those of you who have a bread machine, do you use your bread machines for the whole bread or just the dough setting?

Hope everyone is planning on a great weekend! Thanks for stopping by! ;-)

Babka and....

Hello everyone!

I have been a busy, busy girl! I'm in the middle of three major projects! (Major for me) I have been knitting baby girl things, I found a lovely and simple baby sweater that I only made three mistakes on! (sheesh) working on the baby bonnet made from silk hankies (not finished because I also worked on a baby quilt and quilt finger and silk hankies don't work well together.) I am currently working on the baby quilt for my granddaughter who will arrive in November (Yay!) AND.... I am working on a new vanity bench that I got off Craigslist a while ago! Phew!

So, I have no new pictures of the baby quilt I made for my niece. She did send me a picture of it but you can't really see anything of the quilt, just her adorable baby girl named Naomi! And I don't have pictures of my granddaughters quilt, sweater, bonnet or booties because I have absolutely NO natural light today. Just cloudiness and I didn't take any pictures of them when we did have nice, beautiful natural light all last week! ;-)

But, what I am going to do today is post the Babka recipe here instead. I had a couple of requests for said recipe and you know I'm all about being receptive to requests.... ;-)

So, here you go. And I hope that someday you will remember this recipe and make it because it is seriously delicious!

Chocolate Babka

Makes 3 loaves

1 1/2 cups warm milk, 110 degrees

2 (1/4 ounce each) packages active dry yeast

1 3/4 cups plus a pinch of sugar

3 whole large eggs, room temperature

2 large egg yolks, room temperature

6 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface

1 teaspoon salt

1 3/4 cups (3 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces, room temperature plus more for bowl and loaf pans

2 1/4 pounds semisweet chocolate, very finely chopped*

2 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon

1 tablespoon heavy cream

Streusel topping (see below)

Pour warm milk into a small bowl. Sprinkle yeast and pinch of sugar over milk; let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes.

In a bowl, whisk together 3/4 cup sugar, 2 eggs, and egg yolks. Add egg mixture to yeast mixture, and whisk to combine.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine flour and salt. Add egg mixture, and beat on low speed until almost all the flour is incorporated, about 30 seconds. Change to the dough hook. Add 2 sticks butter, and beat until flour mixture and butter are completely incorporated, and a smooth, soft dough that’s slightly sticky when squeezed is formed, about 10 minutes.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead a few turns until smooth. Butter a large bowl. Place dough in bowl, and turn to coat. Cover tightly with plastic wrap. Set aside in a warm place to rise until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.

Place chocolate, remaining cup sugar, and cinnamon in a large bowl, and stir to combine. Using two knives or a pastry cutter, cut in remaining 1 1/2 sticks butter until well combined, set filling aside.

Generously butter three 9-by-5-by-2 3/4-inch loaf pans; line them with parchment paper.

Beat remaining egg with 1 tablespoon cream; set egg wash aside.

Punch back the dough, and transfer to a clean surface. Let rest 5 minutes. Cut into 3 equal pieces. Keep 2 pieces covered with plastic wrap while working with the remaining piece.

On a generously floured surface, roll dough out into a 16-inch square; it should be 1/8 inch thick.

Brush edges with reserved egg wash. Crumble 1/3 of the reserved chocolate filling evenly over dough, leaving a 1/4-inch border. Refresh egg wash if needed. Roll dough up tightly like a jelly roll. Pinch ends together to seal. Twist 5 or 6 turns. Brush top of roll with egg wash. Carefully crumble 2 tablespoons filling over the left half of the roll, being careful not to let mixture slide off. Fold right half of the roll over onto the coated left half. Fold ends under, and pinch to seal. Twist roll 2 turns, and fit into prepared pan. Repeat with the remaining 2 pieces of dough and remaining filling. (When shaping the babka, twist dough evenly throughout the length of the roll a full 5 to 6 turns.)

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Brush the top of each loaf with egg wash. Crumble 1/3 of streusel topping over each loaf. Loosely cover each pan with plastic wrap, and let stand in a warm place 20 to 30 minutes. (The babka can be prepared up to step 8 and frozen for up to a month before baking. When ready to bake, remove from freezer; let stand at room temperature for about 5 hours, and bake.)

Bake loaves, rotating halfway through, until golden, about 55 minutes. Lower oven temperature to 325 degrees and bake until babkas are deep golden, 15 to 20 minutes more. Remove from oven, and transfer to wire racks until cool. Remove from pans; serve.

Babkas freeze well for up to 1 month.

* After chopping the chocolate into moderately sized chunks, I used the food processor to pulse the rest of the chocolate in two batches to small bits. It saved a lot of time!

Streusel Topping

Makes 3 3/4 cups

1 2/3 cups confectioners’ sugar

1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

In a large bowl, combine sugar, flour, and butter. Using a fork, stir until fully combined with clumps ranging in size from crumbs to 1 inch.

And there you have it. This is a Martha Stewart recipe and it is absolutely, dangerously delicious! I do hope you all will find a time to make it!

Blogger comments and food

Hello everyone! So, I only just realized that I had comments that had never gotten posted. So sorry about that. I am not sure what happened, but I finally got around to looking at my comment moderations page and wouldn't you know it, there were comments I hadn't seen before!

So, I believe all comments have been moderated to date. Phew!

Now, on to one of my favorite things..... FOOD!

I have not been very good about blogging the foods that I have been making. I generally try new recipes every week. And then there are those days when I just go with the tried and trues. Well last week I saw a recipe for Rice noodles with beef gravy (kwaytiow neua sahp). It's a Vietnamese dish and it was AWE-SOME! I found it at Sidewalk Shoes. I had the foresight to paste the recipe into Evernote so I was able to make the recipe. And I'm glad I did because this one is a keeper! It was super YUMMY!

I LOVE fish sauce! Seriously! It's not the best smelling thing you'll ever open a cap to. But, boy howdy it sure does something special to the taste of a dish! There was really only one bad thing about this recipe. And that was that it tasted so good that we, my honey and I, both had seconds! You know how it is, you're stuffed, full to the gills, but you just want more of that taste in your mouth so you grab a second helping. That was us with this dish. Seriously, yum-o!

Now, here is something I made last Friday! And it took ALL DAY FRIDAY to make this!

What you are looking at is a Chocolate Babka! It is what is left of the three loaves I baked last Friday! I got this from Goop which is a site I subscribe to and I get weekly e-mails with all kinds of interesting things. Like one week it will be about fashion or another week about restaurants in various cities. Well, last week it was about Rosh Hashanah, the beginning of the Lunar Calendar Year. And to help with the celebrations you could serve something like, Rugelach, or Honey Apple cake or Chocolate Babka. Well, they had recipes for all three of these sweets that I mentioned. But the one that captured my attention was the Chocolate Babka because of the Jerry Seinfeld Show! We used to watch that every week. And now we enjoy watching the re-runs every evening. Anyhow there is an episode where Jerry and Elaine are invited to a friends house and they decide to go to the bakery on their way to the get-together to pick up a Chocolate Babka. They end up not getting the Chocolate Babka because the person before them had gotten the last one! So then Jerry and Elaine find out that there is another Babka! A Cinnamon Babka. Of course, it's not the Chocolate Babka that they had their heart set on. In their eyes the Cinnamon Babka was an inferior Babka. But, they couldn't go to the get-together empty handed! Of course there is more to the episode but you get the important part which was..... The Chocolate Babka!

So, anyhow, when I saw the recipe, well, I knew I had to make it. I've never seen a babka before, other than on the Sienfeld Show and even then they don't give you a very good shot of it. So I wasn't too sure about what I was doing. But the recipe was pretty easy to read and understand. It just took ALL DAY to make!

Let me tell you what! I now understand why Elaine and Jerry made such a big deal over that Babka. I made three loaves (that's what the recipe made) and when we took a bite, it was LOVE AT FIRST BITE! It is chocolate in bread that also had a nice little crunch from the streussel topping! OH MY GOSH! There were alarm's going off in my head! I knew this was going to kill any resolve I EVER had about eating less! If I didn't get these loaves out of my house.... Well, it would be the death of me! So, I gave a loaf to my neighbors across the street! I gave half a loaf to my next door neighbors! Then I gave a half a loaf to our friend and Choir Director! She has two small kids that are rod thin and can get away with eating this bread! We also gave half a loaf to Baby-Girl but she left our house and forgot it so we gave it to another friend of ours! We ate half a loaf. And if we hadn't given the others away when we did, we'd be eating them right this second!

And man let me just say, Chocolate Babka is wicked good!

Who's the daddy?

Can you tell which

is

which?

Isn't life interesting? ;-)

Garden Tuesday ~ Natures bling

This is the prettiest thing that has grown in my garden all season! Just look at the sparkling, gold collar on this delicately shaded jade green form. Amazing!

This will be my entry for Sidewalk Shoes Garden Tuesday.

Makes me giggle....

I love my fil!

Hello all!

So, I must say, I absolutely adore my FIL! That's Father-in-law, in case you didn't know. He has been so, so kind in making me things. First as you may recall was my lovely, one of a kind, spice rack.

It has been so wonderful to be able to have ALL my spices in one location! It's certainly made my cooking time faster now that I don't have to go searching for any particular item!

And so now, he has taken pitty on me and made me a beautiful oak book shelf that looks like it's a built in! He moved a light switch to the other side of the wall which is so wonderful. I'm not sure why it is that it wasn't like that to begin with. But it's done now and it makes sense!

;-)

Anyhow, as usual. In my excitement over having this wonderful new item made for me, I forgot to take a bunch of before pictures. I took a few of the book shelf when it was already installed and I was beginning to stain it. So here is that photo.

In the picture you can see how dark it is. I ended up going over it with another color stain to add a bit more red to it. I was trying to match it up to the stain that was already on the window and door frames.

It's still a little more brown than I wanted. But I was nervous about making it too red. The shelf actually matches the color of the baseboard more than the window and door frames. And the T.V. is something that get's moved from one room to another. So the cords are all showing. But, I'm okay with that. Normally the T.V. is in the sun room which is kind of our small family room.

So, I've got most of my cookbooks on the shelf. I've downsized quite a bit! Now I need to figure out how to use the bottom of half of the shelves as a pantry too. I don't want to nail or screw any holes into the shelf so that limits how I can use it as a pantry. But I'm not thrilled with the plastic containers sitting out there in the open either. I like my cracker tin that is on the bottom. I would love to have some other tins to maybe store my pasta's in. Or, maybe some pretty glass jars? OH! Maybe some larger WECK jars..... Hmmm, I might have to see if I can get my hands on some of the large jars.

And so this project continues. ;-)

Hope everyone had a great weekend! See you soon!