Labels: Glimpse of the Heart

My middle daughter, Leslie went with me to see Enchanted tonight. We'd planned it over a month ago, and hip hip hoorah it was still hanging around the theater.

Labels: Girl Talk

I know I asked in my last post if anyone else could relate to post-holiday disasters. How 'bout hair challenges? Since I'm just like you and go to Walmart on a regular basis and once in awhile I do a survey of heads, and I'd say 7 out of 10 women might want to look for a new hairdresser, I have to wonder. I've always thought being a hairdresser or an English teacher would be the most depressing of careers. It's so rare to see really great hair that when we do, we tend to ask, "so do you mind telling me where you go to get your hair cut?", and they're so flattered that usually they reach up and pat their 'do and go right ahead and tell you who, where, how much, etc. English teachers I just feel sorry for, with all the 'they wuz', or 'them thar', or 'you wasn't' stuff I hear, usually on the same Walmart trips. I'm not sure which career has less rewarding results- bad hair or bad grammer.

Labels: Girl Talk

Labels: Girl Talk

Labels: Glimpse of the Heart

If you have time for one more project before Christmas, you might want to make these. My mother-in-law's 'famous' popcorn balls - and if you don't have time to make them by yourself, all the better - let the kids help you!

Labels: Family Affair

I bought myself this last year right after Christmas. LOVE IT! Even my husband chuckles at it, because it's oh so true!

Labels: Girl Talk

Here's what DH decided I needed for Christmas. Not only am I missing calls because the volume button is on the side of the phone, and the cute little pocket of my purse I store it in is lowering the volume to silent, he also realized a newer model might offer some other good options.

Labels: Girl Talk

This is my latest knitting project - a squared off baby hat with tassles on the side, knitted in camoflague with an orange stripe so other hunters will see him. Never too early to be ready to go hunting with Daddy, who will hopefully have a semi-matching hat by the time Santa shows up (I think we'll hold off on the tassles for his.) (This is another pattern from Itty Bitty Hats, by Susan B. Anderson - love that book!)

Labels: Creative License, Girl Talk

We're home. We're thankful, we're sad, we're doing well, we're a bit weary but catching up a bit day by day. Thank you for covering us all with prayer. There was always strength when we needed it, laughter, good times with family, and little ones to keep us busy and reminded that life goes on.

I'll be back soon as we clear a path between the suitcases, packages, newspapers, doggie prints and pet hair, to catch up, hopefully before the Big Red Guy shows up! xoxoxo

Labels: Glimpse of the Heart

We're flying to snowy Colorado this morning, nine of us, coming from here and there to meet and say goodbye to Don's mother. Some scurried to get ready, some were extra patient with those doing the scurrying, and some stayed behind so others could be there.

Many of you stopped by to offer your thoughts and prayers, and we appreciate them so much. I apologize for not having the time to thank each of you separately.

Please, if you think of us, continue to pray for our travel safety, for two babies to handle this trip easily, all of us to be patient and loving as we're jumbled together here and there, and for each of us as we deal with this loss. I'll be back in a week or so, after life settles down some. xoxoxo

Labels: Family Affair

I'm sad to post that we lost my dear mother-in-law early this morning. She had a 'minor heart attack' earlier this week, and had spent much of the week in the hospital. It was just too much for her very tired heart. After being transferred back to the facility she lived in, she quietly slipped away in her sleep this morning.

We rearranged the family room this past weekend, which led to rearranging the living room since we stole furniture from there to go there, and that led to rearranging the eating area of the kitchen, and if you're thinking this is a little like "If You Give A Mouse a Cookie.....", you're exactly right, and thank goodness the only other room on this floor is the bathroom and anything in there is attached to the floor, or I might never stop this nonsense. Who has time to rearrange their entire house this year, and what was I thinking? And yes, I've already read Sidetracked Home Executives. I'm aware of my personality quirks, as is the rest of my family. So where was I?

Labels: The Price is Right

She used to be Johnny-on-the-spot, getting her Christmas list ready in plenty of time. This doll, that toy, and as she got older, those jeans or that pair of cool tennis shoes (which I got miserably wrong and she has since forgiven me.) Times change, and little girls grow up. Now she's a mother of three little ones, who are busy making their own lists, so hers doesn't get much attention.

This year, however, she phoned me and gave me hers. "Popcorn balls tinted pink, and fudge, cut into little pieces", each with a walnut on the top, and placed between rows of waxed paper in used Russell Stover boxes. Every year we could count on a box arriving a week or so before the big day, and nestled inside would be a much used candy box, packed with See's Fudge. Popcorn balls used as packing would tumble out, and we'd gather them up and place them in a big bowl on the family room coffee table. As the days wound down to Christmas the pile of popcorn balls would get smaller and smaller. My husband would keep count every evening - don't even try to eat more than one in a sitting! Much like your favorite Girl Scout cookie, they only arrived once a year, and he didn't want them all disappearing too quickly.

His mom is now 95 years old and the days of making treats and mailing them in Christmas packages has passed by. Sarah gently suggested that I pick up the ball, or popcorn balls as it would be, and continue on the tradition for her children, and our other children and their children to enjoy. We rarely finished the fudge. What mother in her right mind would let her kids eat a whole box of fudge, knowing she'd have to pick them off the ceiling to get them into bed that night?! Sometime after December 25, I'd pack the uneaten fudge in the back of the fridge and after the New Year passed, I'd eventually throw it out. You can tell I'm not a chocolate lover...

This year I headed to the local grocery and bought three boxes of inexpensive Russell Stover chocolates, opened them at sewing group and asked my girlfriends to help me out by eating them all. I don't really like chocolate, unless it's a light coating over coconut or toffee. Getting ahold of those three empty boxes cost me $14.25. If I'd known that, I'd have saved the ones we received year after year. Next time I visit my mother-in-law I'll be sure to ask her if I can carry home a few or a dozen of her candy boxes, which are surely still tucked away in a closet.

So if you have anyone on your list who has to have fudge to keep their Christmas memories intact, this one is easy to make, and was a sure hit in our home for over 20 years. There are many variations, this is just the one my mother-in-law gave me, and traditions can't be messed with, I'm sticking with this recipe, no substitutions!

Labels: Family Affair, Slavin' Over the Stove

Yesterday was our first real blast of winter with 3 1/2 inches of the white stuff. Waking to the sound of the salt trucks going down our hill tells me the roads will be passable. It's a comforting sound to start the day.




I bundled up and ventured out for coffee with a girlfriend, and then again with a daughter, to be greeted by a winter wonderland. It feels somewhat like you're on a mission, along with everyone else on the roads, when you get out and do battle with the snow. Since shoveling snow burns about a gazillion calories an hour, after the driveway was clear, I crossed 'work out' off my list and had cookies with my coffee, completely guilt-free!

Waking up this morning, turning on the kitchen faucet to hear it sputter a bit - oh no, how cold did it get? The prediction was for 22.


8.5 degrees????!!! I'm not so much into the single digits. We hit a balmy 29 degrees by mid-day. That's okay, we only have 3 1/2 more months of this. Maybe that's part of why God made snow drifts so beautiful. I still have memories of being new to Colorado (from Texas), running outside with a large mixing bowl, scooping up a bowlful of snow. Back inside we'd add some vanilla, sugar and milk and eat to the bottom of the bowl, amazed you could have 'ice cream' in the middle of winter. I won't think about the ozone and what could have been in it. It was worth it for the memories.

Since it's so stinking cold, let's talk knitting for a change! I finished this scarf, a project done in Alpaca Wool, knitted for my hubby who thinks it's for our son. I figure you can tell some white lies at this time of year, so I was able to just sit and knit away right in front of him. I've ordered more of the yarn to whip up a hat to match before Santa arrives. We need wool hats and scarves around here. This one was done to look a bit dignified, to go with his trenchcoat.




It was my first ribbed project, and I had to do a few 'frogs' on it - rip-it. Chalk it up to learning. Don watched me do some of the ripping out and said he's officially labeled me the "Angry Knitter". Nonsense, I would more call it "Foamy at the mouth while holding needles in your hands Knitter".

Labels: Creative License

Less than a skein of yarn, two nights of knitting while we watched football, and a trip to the local fabric store for some polar fleece to add a dash of sass.


I whipped this up for our 18 month old granddaughter, Miss Addison. The pattern was taken from Itty Bitty Hats by Susan B. Anderson, the book my daughter Sarah used to teach herself to knit. What's not to love about it? I could get addicted to making hats for little people!

Labels: Creative License

I'm the tall one in the middle of the back row with the flashing glare next to my head. I think we're a great looking bunch. Across the back row left to right, Janice, me, Ingrid and Jennifer. The short ones in the front are: Joyce, Linda, Sharon, Mary Ann, Susan and Beth. We have several other members who did not participate in the exchange. I think we span 22 years in age, but when you put us all together we're just girls. I love that.

These are the blocks I sewed for everyone in the group. You can see that each one is different - there were three Christmas quilts, two Americana, one had cats as a theme, and I also had two Americana for the missions quilt that aren't on this board. I've only been quilting for less than three years, so overall I was pleased with how they came out. They were sewn with enough love to make up for any seams that don't match perfectly.

These are the blocks I received from my girlfriends. I chose 30's reproduction fabric because I plan to take this quilt with me when I move away in a year or so, and wanted something that reeked of memories. I love that the fabrics are reminiscent of my grandmothers' aprons. This less than lovely photo of me is the only one of my blocks. Each of us will take the blocks we received and piece them together to make a wall hanging, or add a few more blocks to turn them into a bed quilt, starting in February, then we'll get together this summer at our annual hot dog/pool party at Joyce's to show what they turned out like.

Being a part of this group is a tremendous blessing. When you spend one afternoon a week with a group of women, you share an awful lot of tears and laughter. We truly love each other bumps and warts and all. The younger ones in the group listen to our menopausal woes; the older ones advise those still in the middle of raising teens. One of the women announced at the luncheon that she and her husband will be grandparents next July, raising the number of grandmothers in the group to 8. Our next outing is planned for late March, when we're headed to Lancaster, PA for a quilt show in Amish country. I can't wait for that!

And, finally, here's what I just finished knitting - a hat for six year old Caiden. Paired up with a new football for his Christmas present from Grammy and Papa.

Okay, back to my machine and needles - too many projects, too little time. Not to mention a tree to put up, popcorn balls and fudge to make, throw out the dead mums still on the front porch and drag out the old sled.......

Labels: Creative License, Girl Talk