Friday, January 29th, My biggest challenge to date, finished!

In September, my sweet neighbor and her mom came to the quilt show at my invitation. They enjoyed it so much and even though neither one is a quilter, they drooled over the vendor area and the gorgeous fabrics and projects displayed there. Marie's mom fell in love with an Edyta Sitar wall hanging and asked me if I would make it for her. I helped her pick out fabric, she paid for it and I shook in my boots because it is a technique I have not ventured into. Well, yesterday, I finally finished it. It was a many step process, with tracing images, fusing, cutting, piecing and then quilting.....and quilting....and quilting. I love how it turned out.

Thursday, November 26th, Thank full for so much

This was probably the most perfect Thanksgiving in recent memory. The food went without a hitch, thanks to my incredible husband and my organizational skills. We had more than enough for 21 people. The only thing that was missing was mom, but we ate many of her traditional dishes and talked about her.
I did indeed work last night and didn't get home until about 8:45. I made baked oatmeal last night and I came home to the wonderful smell permeating the house. After sitting down with my family for breakfast, I finally got to bed at 10:30. With all of the adults in the house, and my carefully executed directions, I got up at 1:30 to help finish things off.
The girls made our traditional turkeys. This goes back to Grandma Bev and we have been doing it for years. This year, I didn't buy the usual fruit roll ups for the waddle because the package was so big and I end up throwing them away. Well, each turkey instead looks like he is armed for battle to defend his life!!
When I got up, the cousins were playing poker at the dining room table. They love to play games together.

Candice is a great help in the kitchen and never has any hesitation when asked to help out. We managed to get all 21 people at one table. It was crowded, but oh, so much fun.
The pretty and simple table scape. I had a center piece planned, but forgot about it, which was a good thing because then there was room for the food down the center of the table. Also, I forgot about Thanksgiving napkins, so we used Christmas napkins and folded them the other way. They matched quite nicely.
Dan's usual job on Thanksgiving is to carve the turkey. Chuck made two, one in the roaster and one on the grill, for a total of 34 pounds of turkey. They were absolutely delectable and we had very little left over. The grilled one was so good that Chuck and I decided that in the coming weeks, we will get another one and grill it. The food getting passed. Again with the load of people in the house, we didn't get to go around the table and say what we were thankful for. My heart was so full, in addition to my belly, that I don't think I would know where to begin.
A sampling of our food. Now this person obviously didn't chose everything. There were also delicious brussel sprouts, German red cabbage and Mom's traditional stuffing, now made by Beryl. There were great crusty rolls also. I have the genetic defect of poor gravy making, so Chuck made the gravy. It was great!! Again, we followed Mom's lead and boiled the necks til the meat falls off and add some drippings. He used cornstarch instead of gravy and it was beautiful.
Poor Steve, I am not sure how he took this loud, laughter filled family. They had driven all night Tuesday to get here and he said that Thursday was his tiredest day.
The grandpa's keeping each other company and watching football.
After the dishes were done and dessert was ingested, we got down to playing some games. No Risk this year, but Catie and Steve introduced us to "Bowl of Nouns". Very fun! Charades, Password, and Taboo all in one.
The kids also played Chronology while I did the dishes. Candice wanted to play with David, the history teacher. Don't know how that turned out. He probably skunked them all!
This weekend was especially sweet because Peter and his new wife Kelly are going to South Korea for 14 months to teach English. They are leaving on December 10th. He always entertains us and right before everyone turned in for the night, he and Nathan did the "you will be my arms" bit. We laughed til our sides ached! He is eating a banana. At one point, Nathan broke off part of it and put it in his pocket, smashed it and then took it our and fed it to him.

Let me just say, without hesitation, I LOVE MY FAMILY!!!!!

Saturday, October 31st, Missed out on the trick or treaters

We made the decision not to give out candy this year for Halloween. I felt a little guilty, but with me working tonight and a needed nap right in the middle of the afternoon and Chuck going on a planned bike ride with some buddies, it was an easy choice. Then I don't have candy in the house either. For my sake, Chuck disconnected the doorbell so my nap wouldn't be interrupted. It didn't matter because when they found out that I wasn't responding to the doorbell, they opened the storm door and pounded on the inner door. They even pounded on the side light windows. I felt like a prisoner and had to stay either in the basement, the kitchen or our bedroom where they couldn't' see me from the front window. I thought the universal sign that you had candy was the front light is on. Well, we didn't have it on and they still came!!

Tuesday, October 27th, The reds of October

The burning bushes along Butterfield Road in Libertyville are really gorgeous this year. It looks like someone came along with a can of spray paint and colored them in. The one in front of our house has never really "burned" like these. Celia and I were discussing it last week and I think it is because it faces North and is sheltered by the house.

Friday, October 23rd, Udderly ridiculous

October Bunco generally means a few, if not most of us dress up. I had the idea for my costume forever and just had to make it come together today. I stopped at the party store on the way home this morning and was going to purchase my costume, but $50.00 was a daunting price. What you really can't see in the picture is my 1977 Farm Bureau Dairy Princess sash. See, I'm not just a cow, but an ambassador of good will for the dairy industry!
Oh, and by the way, I won the costume prize, because I was the only one that dressed up!!

Wednesday, October 21st, An annual treat

In addition to the apples from Royal Oak Orchard, a must buy is their Apple Cider Cinnamon donuts. They fly out of the store by the dozens. When you get out of your car in front of the store, you can smell the delicious aroma in the air! I spoke to a lady behind the counter and she told me that they purchased a new machine this year, which makes 140 dozen donuts per hour and on the weekends they can barely keep up. As you can see, there are only 2 left and yes, I did have one.

Monday, October 19th, Back to the Orchard

Right after all the guest left the shower on Saturday, we headed back to the apple orchard in Hebron with Candice. Even though we had a hard frost last weekend and the leaves on many of the trees were brown and falling, there was still tons of fruit left on many of the trees.
We picked in a different area than when we were with Catie and found these enormous Goldens. Right after Candice and found this one, I found the big Mama:I can hardly get my hand around it!!
Look at that pretty gal in the middle of the orchard!
I took this pic with Chuck's awesome camera. Love how the berries are so focused and the background is really blurred.Of course, we went to see the animals again and the geese were in rare form, honking and begging. What a great day!

Monday, October 5th, Fall fun

We have tried to go apple picking with one or the other girl every year for the past 4-5 years. Catie was able to spend an extra day at home before returning to South Carolina, but Candice had to go back to school last night, so I will have to take her when she is home for semester break.
Thankfully we had a beautiful day at Royal Oak Farms in Hebron, our new favorite picking spot. Catie is holding a gourd that is to represent Candice, who we really missed today.
There were very few people there which made it all the more special for us.
Chuck's favorite apple is a Gala, but they had a fungus this year, so we didn't get to pick any of them. But the other trees that we were allowed to pick were loaded:
We picked Empire, Liberty, Jonagofree and a Golden variety. 2 pecks were plenty for us.
It's a good thing they don't weigh us going in and out, because I think we each eat 1-2 apples a piece while we are picking:
Oh, man, they are so good right off of the tree.
I looked at the pumpkins but they were expensive and I think I can find them cheaper at Walmart or Aldi:
Isn't this a weird looking one?
As per tradition, we buy apple cider and apple cider donuts. Then we go to the petting farm so Catie can feed oats to the goats and sheep:
Such a fun family time! Now to make pies, cakes and breads...oh yum!

Wednesday, September 30th, I just adore fall.

With the weather as mild as it has been lately, fall has snuck up on us, but it is starting quite a show!! This morning when I got home from work, I had to turn the furnace on. It was 62 degrees in the house. I like it cool, but that is a little ridiculous.