Merry Christmas!!

A Merry Christmas to all of my blog friends! We'll be staying home except for venturing out to church tonight. If the weather permits we'll be making a trip to see family over the weekend. The weather is pretty frightful right now with alternating snow, freezing rain, and sleet so hopefully it will improve. Obviously I've been taking a bit of a break from blogging, perhaps I'll have time for an update now that I'm on vacation from school. It won't happen today as I'm busy with all of the last minute preparations for Christmas. Just passing along best wishes for everyone to have happy holidays with family and friends and to stay warm and safe!!

Hope You're Hungry!!

I make a pretty fabulous pizza if I don't say so myself. I'm venturing out of my non-blogging atmosphere to try to resurrect my poor blog and what better way than with some food pictures. Pizza number one is Margherita pizza on whole wheat crust. The summer version with fresh basil, tomatoes, and mozzarella is better, but this is still TB's favorite. Pizza number two is Teriaki chicken also on whole wheat. The sauce on this one is half a jar of Ragu alfredo sauce, actually very tasty. I have to leave the good stuff, ie. mushrooms and green peppers, off of part of it since TB doesn't like them. We make homemade pizza almost every week and with just the three of us, we always have some leftovers. Yum!

Fall Happenings

Although I titled this post "Fall Happenings", there really hasn't been a lot happening worth blogging about. I've just put up a few picture from the past few weeks. Her's the pumpkin College Girl carved when she was home for the weekend. She's had a good transition to college so far, has made friends and seems to be doing okay, so that's a relief.
TB's football team got to play their last game of the season on a stadium with artificial turf, so that was kinda cool and not nearly so messy. Unfortunately they got walloped, TB didn't even get to play, so it was kind of a sad end to the season. He had a good time playing football even though he didn't see a lot of playing time in games due to an injury and inexperience. He was sick again this past week with an H1N1 type thing, but he was over it in about 4 days, so it may have been something else.

One last fall picture from the yard. This bush surprises me with its color every year, waiting til most of the other leaves have fallen. I've done pretty well with the yard work this year hauling many bags of leaves out. Now I just hope it waits awhile longer before we have any more snow.

Next week will be a busy one. Besides the usual activities, DH is making a trip to his parents to tour apartments with them, trying to convince them to down-size before winter. Over the weekend we will go to my mother's to move her out of her house. She wants to go to an apartment, but unfortunately her house has sold and none are available in her small town right now, so she'll move in with my brother temporarily. That's about it for now, I'm hoping for a nice evening by the fire watching my favorite hockey team play. Go Gophers!

Early Snow

We had an (another) early snow on Friday of about 4 inches. It snowed in big feathery flakes for most of the afternoon. By the time school let out, the roads were pretty bad. I was filling in for the secretary and had to deal with a lot of calls from parents, late buses, etc. A little hectic, but it felt nice to be needed. Saturday brought sunshine and some cool winds, but most of the snow is gone by now. Thought I'd share a few of the pictures I took on Saturday, it was so good to see the sun. Today we had church, spent most of the afternoon with friends celebrating their son's confirmation, and came home to watch last night's hockey game by the fire. So relaxing!

More Quilts

Here's some more of the beautiful quilts from the show I went to on Saturday. By the way, none of these are mine, I just thought they were worth sharing. The first one below is the same pattern from the block of the month group I just finished (without using the blocks). She did an excellent job on the center applique piece. It is for a child's bed, not something I would do, but it's beautiful. I still haven't gotten any quilting of my own done, but we have a little break from school coming up, so I'll have to then. This is the last day of school we have this week, it will be so nice to have Thursday and Friday off. The weather is STILL supposed to be snowy and cold on Thurs. and Fri. , so perfect days to be in the sewing room. It's supposed to be nice on the weekend, so DH is taking the weekend off from work so we can get some projects done around the house. Mostly outside actually, a few loads of leaves I'm sure, some repairs, etc. I hope it will happen. I've really been feeling in need of a few days off, it hasn't been the best of weeks. One of those where I need a money tree to shake!By the way, can you believe this spiral pieced quilt. It was amazing to look at the planning that must have gone into it. Notice that the fabric matches from the center to the outside despite all of the piecing around it. Wow!

Quilts, Snow, and more

Wow, it's been almost two weeks since my last blog entry. More of the same old, same old around here for the most part. Over the weekend I took in our local quilt show and had a nice lunch with my girlfriends afterward. It was either that or drive and hour to sit in a 30 degree wind and maybe watch TB play football. I felt a little guilty about not going to his game, but he said he didn't care and it was nice to get out with the girls. He ended up playing a lot and having his only reception of the season, so I was sorry to miss that. He also got tackled hard and hit in the helmet so hard he was dizzy, so it's good I wasn't there for that. I might have embarrassed him by asking if he was okay or something. I woke up this morning to see the ground white with snow. It was very depressing to me, I certainly hope some nice fall days return or it's going to be a very long winter. Thought I'd post some of the quilts from the show, it was very inspiring. I hope to make a fall themed wall hanging for over the fireplace soon. I'm thinking about a version of one of the leaf quilts I saw. I took a lot of pictures, so I'll put up some more in a day or so.

An Addiction to Confess

I confess, I've become addicted to Facebook. Neglecting my blog is just one of the symptoms. I might have to go into treatment of some kind if the symptoms don't start to subside. It all started innocently enough, but now I'm on there way too many times in a day. It has its pluses, chatting with my kids at college is one, but the downside is getting sucked into playing these stupid and addictive games for hours on end. I need to find a balance for sure.

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Things have basically been okay lately, but it's been kind of a roller coaster. Some of the lows: DH getting his hand cut at the shop he works at very part time thereby losing a week of income, TB straining his foot, worries about money, kids, parents, etc. Some of the highs: Kids off to a great start at school, winning the grand prize for my Block of the Month group (free quilting on my quilt), a winning football season, fun times with friends, good health, etc. Pretty much like everyone else I guess, life has it's highs and lows. I'm thankful my roller coaster is an easy one right now with no extreme highs, powerful drops to a valley, or twisty upside down turns!

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Before said injury, DH completed our new kitchen table. He had worked on it on and off for about 8 or 9 years I think. The wood was from a big pine tree that was in the back yard of the house I grew up in on the family farm. The tree we always had our picture taken in front of. It had to be taken down when the old house was moved so that my brother could build a new one on the same site. The wood was rough cut into 2 inch planks and DH did the rest all by himself. It think it turned out great and it will be a nice memory for me- both of the tree and DH's work on the table.

Asters, etc.

It's been kind of a weird day today. I woke up in the middle of the night not feeling well and attributed it to all of the stuff I had eaten over the course of the evening. I'm too embarrassed to even say what I ate, let's just say it was quite a combination. Anyway, I'm not surprised it woke me up. Then when I got up for real in the morning, I had a bad eye- red and goopy. So I took care of that and it seemed to get a little better. When it was time to go to work, I realized I had locked my keys in the van. About the time I was going to walk to work, DH said "Why don't you take the little car?" Duh, I hadn't even thought of it. So I make it to work, do lunch and recess duty and then realize "I really don't feel well, kinda feverish". So I took my temperature in the nurse's office, and sure enough, I've running a fever. Great. So they sent me home so that I don't infect the whole school with H1N1 or something. Now I'm really aware of just how crappy I feel, so I was happy to go home. Thinking about it now, I really didn't feel well yesterday either. Sooo, what else would I do once I got home but practice taking close up shots of flowers- with bees on them. Umm yeah, that's smart. I think I'll go take a nap now. Happy Friday though!!

Fall Flowers

It's been a good year for my flowers out in front by the street too. I wish I had more mums, but the phlox, black-eyed susans, and autumn sedum are having a good year. I have some asters for the first time this year. They are nearly ready to open, so I'm anxious to see what they look like. After an early morning at church, it was nice to watch a little football and take a nap this afternoon. Then we went back to church for a book group about "The Shack", a book many in the congregation read this summer. It is always interesting to hear the different perspectives people have on something they've read. Tonight we took a nice walk around the lake. It sure gets dark a lot earlier these days. I wish I had brought my camera along, it was quite picturesque as the sun went down over the lake.

Friday Night

It turned out to be a really nice day yesterday. I met some friends for some sewing in the morning. I made it through the first week of school and it went well overall. After school, I went out with a few friends from work, came home to some homemade fettuccine alfredo that DH had ready for me, and we headed off to the football game. We always sit with a large group of friends from church, share some candy, and cheer on the band and the football team. All of us have kids in the marching band. I mentioned the budget cuts another time and the fact that the band wouldn't be marching on the field this year. It was part of the reason TB decided to give football a try for the first time. At 6'6'' and 165, he's not exactly built like a football player, but he has grown some muscles and probably improved his speed some. His real goal is to make the varsity baseball team in the spring, so he'll have to keep in shapefor that. I went to a tiny school in Iowa, so the city atmosphere of a cross-town rivalry, fancy band, and danceline are all new to me. It's a lot of fun to watch though and we won the game 32-6. TB watched the action from the sidelines; he would have played in the JV game this morning, but it was canceled, so we'll have to wait to see him play. After the game, we went to one of the friends home for munchies and drinks and ended up visiting until 12:15.

Flowers

Here's a couple of pictures of the flowers on my patio. We have a concrete patio out the back of our house with this brick wall all the way around. It makes for a nice place for flower boxes and pots. They have really done well this summer. Usually by now they are looking pretty dead. I guess starting out with some better fertilized soil and the right amount of rain and sunshine has made the difference. I've just never had geraniums that looked like these-kinda cool. I planted more impatiens this year since they do better in the shade than the petunias, but both are doing well, so it was a surprise.

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It will be kind of a busy day today. I'm getting together with my friends to do some sewing this morning. Haven't decided if I'll actually sew or just bring along some cutting and handwork projects. I have to be to work at noon and everyone else has the whole day, so by the time I get there I won't have a ton of time. My new machine is great, but it's heavy and not very portable, so I don't know if I want to drag it along. TB has his first home football game tonight, so I hope the weather will hold. It's been really nice so far this week and seems nice this morning. After the game we'll get together at a friends house, mostly the same group from this morning plus husbands. It's great to have friends. It will also be nice to have the first week of school done. It's had it's ups and downs, but overall been okay.

Harvest Time

Well, it's almost harvest time around here. The crops haven't done so well this year though and the produce will be enough to garnish approximately one side salad. Oh for a sunny spot in which to have a real garden. It hasn't been a good year for the food plants on the patio. I've only had enough basil to make pesto once and my regular tomatoes (all two of them) are still green and show no promise of supplying enough for even a BLT. On of these years maybe I'll go back to having a garden plot in the country. I did that many years ago when the kids were little and it was a disaster. The deer ate all of my beets at the moment they were ready to be harvested. The kids ran wild resulting in one really bloody accident involving one hitting the other over the head with a glass bottle. The weeds had a heyday and very little produce of any kind was harvested. One funny memory was that there was a port-a-potty at the garden. Little TB thought it was the coolest thing ever and needed to visit it every time we were there. I'll have to remind him of that. Ah, those were the days. File under "what was I thinking?!!".

Block of the Month and Etc.

Here's the block of the month for August. You don't have to look at it very hard to see that I didn't do a great job on this one. I got busy trying to finish some other projects for birthday presents for my friends and lost track of time. I put this block together super fast so I could get to the class and get next month's block for free. The deal is that if you show up at class with the previous months block done, you get the next one for free and only pay for the first block. So for both years I've done this I've gotten the entire quilt top for free. I'm cheap that way. Of course many months I've also bought additional fabric, paid for the completer kit, etc., so it's really not all that free. By the way, I didn't get the birthday projects finished either and what I did get done doesn't look the way I wanted. I'm going to sew some button tabs for hanging on the top of these little things and call them good I guess. I loved this "Fruits of the Spirit" fabric and cut the inside block with the sayings from the panel I got. I don't remember the exact name of the fabric line. I tried quilting these with the "hand look" stitch on my machine. I also tried using fusible batting, but it didn't stick for some reason, so I think that's why I have all the puckering. Rats. Hopefully I'll be able to press them out.

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I'm back at work at school tomorrow, so I've been really trying to get caught up on my housework and cleaning before that. I've even cleaned some areas that never get done like under the washer and dryer and under the cushions on the couch. DH just shakes his head and says he should look for an alien pod because it certainly isn't my usual mode. My desk top is even pretty good. I still didn't get that painting project done and haven't done any yard work either. I can't believe how well my flower boxes have done this year. They still look great which is so rare for September. I think it helped that I took out about half of the old dirt when I planted and also planted more of a variety in each box, including impatiens, which have done well. I'll try to get a picture posted of them before it frosts.

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CG and CS seem to be settled in well at college and they start class tomorrow too. TB is doing okay with being the only one left at home, but it is kinda strange to just be the three of us at meals. He's been gone quite a bit for football, so it's been pretty quiet around here. I'm looking forward to the first home game this Friday night and I think we will host the first after the game get together that night. We have a tradition with 4 other couples of getting together after all of the home games.

Still in a slump

I'm obviously still in a bit of a blogging slump. It's not that there hasn't been anything going on, just that I haven't been able to put into words or pictures anything that seems remotely interesting even to me, my most faithful reader. In the past week we've moved our kids around, gotten the older two settled at college. SD (senior daughter) is now officially CG (college girl). I like that better than college daughter, it has a bit of a super hero ring to it. I'm sure she'll be fine and do great, but there's still that part of me that's sad. I've gotten used to it with CS, but it's hard to have one leave the nest. I'll miss our chats in her room, having a shopping buddy, and hearing about all the everyday things of her life. I told DH that I'd try not to dwell on the sadness, feeling like I've been a terrible parent, and if it weren't for the fact that they're turning out so great, that would be hard to do. Thank goodness for Facebook chat, something I'd recommend for any parent of a college student. Even when they don't have time for a regular phone conversation, we can chat a few sentences, and get by until we can talk.

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We've had our back to school meetings at work and I helped at meet the teacher at school last night. It was great to see the kids and their parents. There are always some older siblings there too and it's fun to see how they've changed. I did find last night though, that it's getting harder to remember names after a 3 month break. It was so irritating to see kids that I know so well and not to be able to think of their names immediately. Yet another sign that I'm getting older and the brain isn't working as well I guess.

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After the busyness with getting things ready for college kids, I haven't accomplished much around the house. Painting projects left unfinished, quilting projects untouched, yard work not done, etc. How depressing! I'm looking at the start of the school year as a time for a new start in a lot of ways. Better sleep habits, more accomplished at home, eating better and exercising, Bible study and devotions, etc. Hopefully I'll do better than I did on the New Year's resolutions.

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I promise better posts to come, I have quilt work that I have to do for my class, TB's football games to attend, flowers ready to bloom, etc. so check back for some pictures and more cheery postings. TTFN!

Writer's Block

I've been in a bit of a blogging slump lately. Now that I think about it, just a plain old slump all the way around. I haven't been sleeping well for whatever reason, getting a late start on the day, and not accomplishing a whole lot. I guess that means its time to go back to work pretty soon. We have a pretty busy week coming up.....moving CS to his dorm and bringing some stuff back home. Starting up with some of the fall/school activities. Getting SD ready to go off to college. The usual stuff like laundry, cleaning, extras like painting and various household tasks. Anyway, I'm not sure if I'll be posting much for awhile. In the meanwhile, I think I'll try to think of some interesting and blog-worthy topics since my day-to-day stuff just isn't cutting it. Stay tuned!!

What's in a name?

I just found out there's a blog called Sew Many Ways. She's having a fabric giveaway that I entered my name in. I guess there are probably a lot of sewing/quilting blogs with the play on the "Sew", but I'd never seen one this close. Anyway, if I mention the giveaway here, I get another entry, so go ahead and follow the link. If you don't sew (I just about said "if you're not a sewer" but that didn't sound good-lol) you can give me the fabric. :)

A Couple of Movie Recommendations

It's been a beautiful day today in Minnesota. Over the weekend we had Iowa-like humidity, wind, and rain. We needed the rain, but it sure made things sticky. I celebrated my birthday on Friday. DH and SD made me homemade beignets (French fried pastries) and chocolate flavored coffee for breakfast. They got the mix for them when they were in New Orleans and had the real thing at Cafe' DuMond. They were pretty tasty, but the deep frying sure made the house stinky for awhile. Then later in the day, DH and I went to a matinee and over to some friends for supper. The girls went and saw "Julie and Julia" and the boys went to "G. I. Joe". My friend and I loved "Julie and Julia" and I would highly recommend it. It was a real feel good movie...a few sad parts, but also a lot of humor and it made me want to go out and get a Julia Child cookbook. I learned a lot about her life; she was quite an interesting lady, and she had a real peach of a husband also.

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The other movie I saw recently on DVD was "Marley and Me". Another good movie, but I'm glad I didn't see it in public because I was practically sobbing by the time it was over. I'm not a big cryer, but this one really got to me. A great story and I don't think you'd have to be a dog owner to appreciate it.

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School is starting in many places, but we're lucky here to not have to go back for three more weeks. My kids and I all start the same day, Sept. 8th, although the college kids have to be on campus sooner than that. The big move in day for them is the 1st, so we'll see how I deal with having two kids in college. Poor TB will be the only one left at home for me to pick on. The poor thing is so tired from football and mowing lawns he probably won't even notice.

Skywatch from Iowa

Here are a couple of shots I took with my cell phone on my trip to Iowa earlier in the week. I live in Minnesota now, but I grew up on a farm in Iowa. It's nice to get down there this time of year when the crops are at their peak. This summer there has been plenty of rain, so the corn and soybeans are thriving and all of the grass is still green with wildflowers blooming in the ditches. Unfortunately though, a bad hail storm went through about 10 miles to the north of where I was driving causing a total loss in some fields. The weather can be friend or enemy to a farmer. These clouds looked like something was brewing and it was interesting to see the formations change as I drove across the countryside for about an hour. I live in town with a lot of trees in my yard, so sometimes I miss the open spaces, seeing the sunsets and being able to see for miles in any direction. Check out the other Skywatch posts for many varying scenery options!

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In other news, TB is at school getting his football gear today. We were surprised at his decision to play football this year and I hope he will continue to enjoy it once two-a-day practices start next week. Budget cuts in our school district forced a down-sizing of the marching band program in our school to the point that he did not want to participate any more. Too bad, but I hope he will continue to play in the concert band.

Block(s) of the Month

I've been a really neglectful blogger lately, for good reasons mostly. Anyway, before starting with the obligatory excuse list, here's my blocks for this month. I had to do two this month since the quilt needs 14 instead of just 12. I've also started on the applique portion that goes in the middle of the quilt. It is a large bunch of flowers tied with a bow. Up until last week, I had only done 2 stems, but I got busy and got the rest of the stems put on and also worked on some of the flowers. I was going to do all turned applique, but after doing the stems that way, I decided to just do the easiest way....iron on fusible web, cut out pattern, iron onto quilt, machine applique. It's still pretty time consuming, but it's turning out okay.

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DH and I just got back from a brief trip to Iowa to check on our parents. They have been in the nursing home this summer and now all but his mom are back home. Hopefully she will be well enough to go home in a week or so. The previous week I had a house guest from Monday afternoon until Thurs. afternoon. Then various other things including another trip to the cities, repeated carpet cleaning, insurance and financial wrangling, and then this trip this week. It all has made August fly by and before I know it, it will be time to move the kids to college and go back to work. Yuk. All in all it has been a pretty stressful summer and I hope things will start to turn around a bit for the fall. I guess I shouldn't complain though as things can always be worse. I'm very thankful lately that my back/sciatica pain has completely gone away after three months. I was starting to think I'd be in pain for the rest of my life, it was no fun, but made me more sympathetic to others that have chronic pain.

Thanks!!

Thanks for visiting my blog! As I mentioned, it's my one year blog anniversary today. I feel like my bulleted posts are very boring and self indulgent, so here's some recent shots of what's blooming in my yard right now to make up for it. First, my Jasmine plant. The little white flowers are so interesting in their design...nature's pin-wheel. Their fragrance on these nice summer days is heavenly.

Then one of my Asian lilies. I got the bulbs from a teacher friend a couple years ago and they have really come up nicely this year. I have several varieties and they all bloom at slightly different times.
Lastly, I think this might be Culver's Root or a variety of Speedwell. Jeanelle had pictures along with a lot of information about something very similar in her blog the other day. Her's were a wildflower and seemed shorter. These grow in a shady part of my yard and are probably close to 5 feet tall. They have quite a nice smell and attract a lot of bees.

Here's a close up, aren't those little balls on the tips cool?

One Year Ago...

I started my blog. I guess that means it's my blogiversary today. I'm sure it's only a matter of time before that word ends up in the dictionary along with frenemy, staycation, and vlog. As an aside, I wonder if the current definition of "sick" includes the way TB uses it- meaning something that is good in a very cool, surprising, or awesome way. Ha When I was watching golf for a while today, the commentator even described Tiger Woods' 33 foot putt as "sick", so I guess it's catching on or the commentator is actually 16. Anyway, I've had fun with my blog and it's been a bit of a creative outlet which is good for everyone to have. It's been a rather eventful week around here; time for the always loved bullets...
*SD left for a pre-college camp called Nature of Life, a requirement for freshmen majoring in Biology. She had a good time up at Lake Itasca. I told her that she has traveled from the beginning to the end of the Mississippi in less than a week and she said she'd already had that thought.
*My mom was finally able to move home from the nursing home and seems to be doing well now that her neck is healed.
*DH's parents had a bit of a set-back when his mom was admitted to the hospital today with pneumonia. His dad is doing real well, but I'm sure this will prevent them from moving home from their nursing home for awhile. DH is down there visiting this weekend.
*TB started football camp. He's never played football, but wanted to give it a try to keep up his conditioning and try to put on some muscle. At 6'6" he only weighs 165, so he'd like to gain some weight. He has been so happy this week that DH and I can't decide if it's the endorphins or if there's a girl he likes. Ha
*I finished summer school on Thursday. It wasn't too bad, but I'm glad it's over since it started so early in the morning. I deleted my rant about getting a new job since I thought it seemed so lame, but I'm still thinking about it nonetheless.
That's about it, thanks for listening!

New Orleans...vicariously

DH and my younger two kids got home from New Orleans yesterday. They had a great time, but were very tired. They got in a little sight seeing, attending a lot of large group gatherings, did a lot of walking, and did a service project in the lower 9th Ward in New Orleans. DH was very proud of the group of kids that they worked so hard and cleared 9 lots where other groups cleaned only a couple and quit before lunch time. It's hard to believe that nearly 5 years after Katrina that there is still so much work to be done. This convention, the ELCA Youth Gathering, was the largest convention group to attend in New Orleans since Katrina and numbered around 37,000 people. I'm sure it was a much needed influx of money to the area and each group attending did community service as well, so a lot of work got done. I'm sure a lot of the attendees will be inspired to return and continue helping if possible. A big emphasis of the Gathering was for each person to work for justice in their own community serving the needy, helping others, etc. so I hope that will happen. Anyway, I enjoyed my week at home but didn't quite catch up on all of my work. I've just got two more days of summer school left and then my schedule will be pretty free for completing projects.

Little Sister Quilt

I finally got some quilting done. This little wall hanging had been practically done since March when my thread ran out when I was quilting it and I never got around to finishing it up. It was supposed to be an Easter/Spring quilt, but as usual that didn't quite happen. I've had the basket of artificial lilacs waiting on the mantle all that time. Ha. I guess I'll enjoy looking at it for awhile and then hopefully get something more summery put up. My basket is really a geranium basket and has a special liner and a bunch of geraniums that look nice in it, so I should do something red to match. This quilt is the little sister of one I made for a friends birthday back in March. I kind of like the bigger one better, but it wouldn't have fit in this spot anyway. The flash on the camera made the purple border look really bright, it's really much more subdued and blends better than it looks in the picture.

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Another week of summer school is over! Only one more to go and then I'll have the rest of the summer free. I have enjoyed working with the little special needs kids, they are certainly nicer and better behaved than some of the 5th grade boys were by the end of the school year. This afternoon I'm taking tickets at a playoff baseball game for the level above my son's team. His season was over last Sunday, so he didn't have to miss any games for his trip. Then I'm invited over to some friends for supper, so I won't have to eat leftovers for the third night in a row!