• Yesterday…

    October 7, 2019 / No Comments

    Yesterday started out with bright sunshine and cool Fall temperatures.  We enjoyed a wonderful church service continuing the series on Moses.  I love the story of the burning bush…reminding us, once again, that God is faithful.  We came home for a quick bite of lunch then drove to Ames to watch our ten year old grandson play in a soccer game.  He puts his whole heart into it as he runs up and down the field doing his part to win the game.

    After the game, we enjoyed the Iowa countryside scenic route home.  We stopped briefly at a pumpkin farm and bought a pumpkin for the front porch and a few ornamental gourds and stalks of decorative corn.  I love this time of year…

     

    I think I’m a country girl at heart.

     

    Found this Williams-Sonoma roosters tablecloth new on eBay.  I love the farmhouse feel.

  • Winding down…

    October 2, 2019 / No Comments

    It’s 59 degrees with a light rain today.  I love days like this.  I have a Crockpot and an Instant Pot (on the slow cooker setting) full of apple butter cooking.  The house smells wonderful!  There are two more large pots on the stove with apples cooking to make more apple butter.  As you know, you start out with a large pot of sliced apples and they cook down…way down.  As the apple butter cooks, it will simmer down to a spicy goodness.  I still have to prepare the jars, fill them and process them.  A lot of time and work, but the apple butter will taste so good on hot biscuits this winter!  

    Doug has spent many hours working outside this summer.  As a Master Gardener, he loves it.  We have 1.25 acres and he has made the most of every square inch.  The plants and flowers have been beautiful this summer.  This was the second year for our perennial garden which we added to this year.  Next year should be even better.  For now, everything is winding down.  Thanks to the rain, the grass is still green but that will turn soon enough.  Even the humming birds seem to have left already.  Since the bees are enjoying the sweet nectar, I’m not complaining.

    Look closely.  The feeder is covered with bees!

    The roses are beautiful and having one last hurrah with loads of blooms. 

    Their leaves bear the result of the invasion, again this year, of Japanese beetles!

     

  • Apple time…

    September 30, 2019 / No Comments

    My daughter and her family live just around the corner from us.  We love that!  They have six acres, a big old barn, a chicken house with chickens and turkeys and an apple orchard – with 50+ apple trees!  It’s apple time and we’re loving it.  I helped her peel apples a couple of weeks ago.  We talked and watched a film while we peeled and sliced enough apples for ten quarts of canned apples!  She makes the most delicious fried apples, just like Cracker Barrel’s.  Ten quarts are just a drop in the bucket compared to what they will need this winter, so there’s lots more peeling to do.

    Today, I’m peeling apples for us while Doug helps Christy mow their six acres.  It’s so cute to see him driving off on his mower to go help, wearing his much loved Tilley hat.  They get it done in less time together.

    Doug picked one five gallon bucket of apples for me and I will probably need one more to complete 12 pints of homemade apple butter!  My goal is to create apple butter that comes close to the wonderful apple butter at the Nashville House in Nashville, Indiana.  Unfortunately, I just read that they closed after 91 years!  I’ll post some pics of the process and the finished product later.  Hopefully, it will be good enough to share!

     

    It may be a few days before we peel and start the process all over again but, right now, we just took the last batch out of the sterilizing water bath.  A total of only ELEVEN pints of apple butter but it’s so good! So a gift of homemade canned goods is a gift of time and love!  Jar #12 was only about 2/3 full so we’re keeping that out to enjoy now.  We chose to make this apple butter just a little chunky and I like it!

     

  • Autumn 2019…

    September 29, 2019 / 10 Comments

    It’s beginning to feel like Fall…my favorite season of the year.  The windows are open and there’s a cool breeze.  A welcomed cool breeze after the hot summer we’ve had.  I love this time of year.

    If you noticed the date on my last blog post, you’ll see that it has been a while.  Much too long.  I’m ready to write again.  I have a brand new camera and it’s time to take photos again.  It’s a really nice Canon and definitely over my head, but I’ll figure it out.  In the meantime, I’ve purchased a Genesis framework update for my website, a new theme from 316 Designs and a few other technical things that I hope will help as I begin writing again.  In the beginning, you’ll probably see some changes when you log in, but I’ll get it done eventually!  Then again, I may be the only one here!  

    You’ll see some categories that will eventually be written and developed with photos of projects I’m working on – like sewing & quilting, family history & genealogy, Our Iowa Home and Sweet Home Chicago.  Hopefully, one of these days, there will be a category for photography.  I literally wore out my last camera – a Sony.  I have hope for the new one.

    It’s amazing how many “technical” changes there have been in the last two years in the world of blogging…not for the better either.  I found a plug-in that took me back to the original work sheet that looks familiar to me.  It’s not that I mind change – I don’t.  It’s just that the new one had no visible way to add photos that I could find…and I love to add photos!

    Three years ago, we leased our first vintage apartment in Chicago which we had for two years.  A year ago, we purchased a condo there and have enjoyed decorating it.  We’re especially enjoying being close to our sons and their families.  I love it when we’re there and we get to pick up two little granddaughters from school!  I especially enjoyed my time with them this summer having Grandmommy Camp!

    I’m loving this sweet journey home we’re on.  It’s hard to believe that Doug and I have been married for four and a half years now.  So many adventures and fun times together already…and we’ve only just begun.  From now on, I will take the time to blog about some of those adventures.  By the way, take a moment to read the new page entitled Cam.  On the sidebar on the right, you’ll see a header “Pages”.  Scroll down to the one about Cam.

    If you’re still out there by any chance, please leave a comment. Of course, first, I must figure out how you can leave comments on this new blog!  😉

     

  • Promises…

    January 13, 2015 / No Comments

    This morning began with a chilly three degrees outside.  Snow and patches of ice still cover the ground and tarmac outside.  Thankfully, the thermometer slowly rose to the day’s high of nineteen…but the wind chill made it feel so much colder.  As much as I enjoy opening all the drapes first thing in the morning, today they remained closed.  The goal today was staying warm.  Later this week a heat wave of 45 is predicted!  I look forward to that and will enjoy letting the sunshine in the windows then.

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    I’ve been thinking about promises today.  If you’re at all like I am, then you don’t make promises lightly.  Neither does God.  There are amazing promises in the Bible.  One of my favorite promises is found in Jeremiah 29:11.  “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future”.  The past two years of my life have held some sadness and a few challenges.  At times,  I confess to wondering what God had in store for me.  Still, I clung to the promise He made in Jeremiah 29:11.  He is faithful and I am thankful!

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    Doug left on Sunday for a much anticipated trip to Antarctica!  He made the plans for this once-in-a-lifetime trip to see a part of this world that most of us will never see before the two of us met.  Before he left, he planted the Paperwhite bulbs below for me and placed them on a small table facing the glass door in my kitchen.  As a Master Gardener, he knows far more than I do about plantings, but I could not believe they are “planted” in clean smooth pebbles with barely enough water to cover the pebbles!  Each of the bulbs holds the energy and everything it needs to grow within itself.  Amazing, isn’t it?  There’s a promise within each bulb of the beautiful Paperwhite blossoms they are to become.  Much like the promise you and I hold within each of us!

    So, in the meantime, I will take care of these little bulbs and watch them grow.  I will look forward to stories about Penguins, the amazing beauty of Antarctica and camping on the ice when Doug returns! 

     

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    Note:  The photo of the Paperwhite blooms above is from Wikipedia.  I will post pics of these bulbs when they bloom!

  • Thanksgiving…

    November 30, 2014 / 1 Comment

    My younger son and his precious family arrived on Wednesday evening before Thanksgiving in the midst of falling snow and a cold, cold wind.  I had not seen them for six long months and I was literally “bananas” waiting to grab my beautiful little granddaughters in my arms.  I was afraid my 15 month old granddaughter would not remember me (though we’ve talked on FaceTime).  I held her in my arms and she sweetly studied my face.  I smiled at her and said “it’s Grandmommy!” and she gave me an enormous smile which reached those beautiful blue eyes!  Needless to say, my heart melted.  I knelt down to embrace three year old granddaughter and planted kisses on her cheeks and sweet little head.  I kept saying “I’ve missed you so, so much!” and she said “I missed you too, Grandmommy!”  Again, my heart melted!

     

    Thanksgiving at my daughter’s home was a wonderful time with two of my children, two of my other children (my son-in-love and daughter-in-love), six out of nine of my grandchildren, Doug and his sweet 95-year-old Mom and two granddogs, Kiana & Bernie!  There was a lot of laughter and a lot of really good food!  My daughter had purchased a 26 pound fresh turkey from a local farmer.  She brined it overnight before cooking it and the result was a moist, delicious turkey.  She prepared all the wonderful side dishes and three different pies which were excellent.  My daughter-in-love put together the large vegetable tray and made one of my favorites – a spinach-artichoke-garlic dip served with pita chips.  Delicious!  With Doug’s help, I made a cheese ball and baked dozens of different cookies the day before Thanksgiving because I knew once my little granddaughters arrived, I would just be playing!  Which I did!

    A happy, blessed grandmother…

     

    My daughter falling in love with her baby brother’s baby…

     

    Doug and Mary, his sweet 95-year-old Mom, enjoying Thanksgiving with my family…

     

    No better place to be than in the floor playing with my grandchildren!

     

    In the midst of all the excitement and joy of being together, I had to pause and reflect for just a moment.  

    I have so much to be thankful for and I truly am…