Mountain woman at heart

Write to your heart’s content journal

2012-01-24T04:23:00.000-06:00

Ok folks, this is my first crack at a actual, real tutorial.

I made something similar to this a few years back from a pattern I purchased but it never quite fit right and I didn’t really like how they put it together. I thought they made it way more complicated than it needed to be.
So the week between Christmas and New Years when I was off work I decided to take a crack at doing my own. My sides family Christmas wasn’t until January 9th but I still needed gifts for my great nieces, plus my sisters. My sisters and I try to make something each year for each other so I thought these might fit the bill all the way around for my sisters and nieces.

Here goes…

Supplies needed:
at least 2 fat quarters
trim, ribbon or yarn of your choice
matching or coordinating thread
a composition notebook

First press your two fat quarters to get the folds out so you can get an accurate measurement. I used two coordinating prints. Out of each print I cut a 11” wide x 21” long(almost width of fabric) piece of fabric. Then from one of the prints, I cut another piece 6” wide x 21” long.

I used the bolder print for the outside of the journal and the solid for the inside and the band on the outside of the journal. It’s strictly your preference.

Take the 6 x 21 piece, fold in half lengthwise so edges meet and stitch 1/4” along the long side of the fabric.

I used my 1/4” sewing foot. I don’t know what I did before I bought this. My seams weren’t as accurate, that’s for sure.
When finished, you will now have a piece that is sewn along the long edge and open on both ends.

Turn the tube of fabric right side out.

Lay the tube out with the seam in the center back and press.
You’ve now completed your accent strip for the outside of your journal.

I positioned mine in the center of the journal but you could vary that according to what you like.
I measured 4-1/4” up from the bottom of the outside cover and positioned the strip there.

Then I cheated and used some old stitch witchery fusible tape I had to secure the strip in place so I didn’t have to take the risk of pinning it and having it shift as I sewed it.

I then topstitched both of the long sides at approximately 1/8” from the edge of the strip.
At this point your can easily sew another type of trim on top of this coordinating strip if you want, like I did on these for the great nieces. Some I sewed jumbo rickrack and others another type of ribbon.

Back to the one we are putting together right now though…place wrong sides of your journal fabrics together. Pin in place.

Next, using a pen or whatever marking tool you prefer, (I used a pen because it was handy and no one would see it in the end anyway) mark your outside cover at the center bottom.

Start stitching approx. 1-1/2” away from your mark and make a 1/4” seam on all four sides of your cover, stopping approximately 1-1/2” from the same mark, leaving a 3” opening. You will use this opening to turn your cover right side out.

Before turning your cover, clip your corners diagonally being careful to not cut into your stitching, like I came close to doing here.

Turn your cover right side out, using the eraser end of a pencil or an orange stick to push out the corners.
Once you have it completely turned, turn under the open edges and press the entire cover.

Turn each end of your cover under 2-3/8” and press and pin in place.

Topstitch along the top and bottom edge of your journal a scant 1/4” from the edge being sure to catch the pressed opening where you turned your journal right side out.

When you are finished stitching, your cover will now look like this.

Fold in half and press again. This will help define your center back for the next step.
Cut a piece of ribbon approximately 50” long. Find the center point. Lay that in the center of the coordinating strip on the outside of your journal and stitch in place along the center back fold that you just made with your iron.
You’re almost there! Insert the composition book into the cover.

Tie the ribbon in a nice bow on the front and wallah! In less than an hour’s time, you’ve made a nice gift for someone else or yourself!

Once you get a system down, you can easily make one of these in a little over 30 minutes.

I really like the way the batiks turned out.

You can use these for a journal, recipes, school, the possibilities are endless. My daughter in law is even using hers to track her fitness goals. I’d like to keep a couple of these on hand for a quick little gift when needed.

If there is something you didn’t understand or I wasn’t clear on, please let me know. If you make one, I would love to see your finished product.

Enjoy!

Then and now

2012-01-22T17:11:00.001-06:00

In my last post I told about going for a motorcycle ride in January. Unheard of for us here in the Midwest! We had a very uncommon mild start to 2012. Just ten days ago we had a beautiful moonlit night.

Well, that was then and this is now.This was the scene from Friday afternoon. Motorcycle rides and mild weather are officially over for a while. Temps in the teens and more snow. ugh!

rabbit trail…..I played around with the above picture in Picnik which has become my favorite photo editing website. However, the other day I received an email telling me that they are shutting down in a couple of months. Anyone know of any other online editing websites similar to picnik? rabbit trail over(for now).

So what does one do on a snowy afternoon when they are just thankful to have arrived home safely from work?

make a mess of her kitchen, of course! A neat cook I am not. Yes, this is how I roll…

I was trying out a new recipe for a dessert auction coming up in March(see pictures from last years auction here and here). The theme this year is chocolate. I tried to convert the espresso cupcakes I made for our son, Joe’s wedding back in June into a cake. The results? ehhh [shrug]. I tried a different cake recipe and it either needs tweaking or I should go back to the original cupcake recipe. The cake will be going to work with me tomorrow. My guys there will eat anything as long as it isn’t crawling away. In fact, they rather like my experiments.

I was thinking about baking this in individual coffee mugs instead of a big cake. Get it? Espresso cake baked in a coffee mug? I thought it could be kind of cute. Have you ever baked anything in a coffee mug before? Did it work? Did the mug break? Did you adapt the baking temperature or time? Any tips?

Do you have any fabulous chocolate dessert recipes you’d be willing to pass along on to me? I’ll be sitting by my email waiting for them.

Have a great week! I hope to get the journal tutorial posted in the next day or two.

Beginning a bit behind

2012-01-16T20:46:00.001-06:00

Yes, I’m beginning the year a bit behind. I have all sorts of things to post but it seems not much time to get it done.

I did have the nucleoplasty procedure on my back that had been previously postponed on Friday, which means my “seat time” is very limited. I am only allowed to sit for 45 minutes at a time, then have to be up and moving for the next 10-15 minutes so when I am able to sit at the computer, I’m cramming everything I can into those 45 minutes. Unfortunately, it takes me 5 minutes to remember where I left off before I got up to move. But I’m happy that the procedure took place and without too much post-op pain. Now, we wait a few weeks to see what the results will be.

Before I had the procedure though, kind of as a last hurrah and because we’ve never done it before, we took a January 5th motorcycle ride! Unheard of for us! There’s usually much snowin’ and blowin’ goin’ on in December let alone January so the last few weeks have been a wonderful gift as we had an oddly mild start to our winter. The temperature was in the high 50’s on January 5th so we bundled up and off we went. We were only able to be out for two hours before we got too cold but it was glorious!

Here’s a few pictures from our excursion…

The sky was beautiful!

This creek was so pretty with the bits of snow along the banks.

Round bales wrapped for winter feeding and cattle in the corn field.

And since this ride, winter has begun for us. We were so blessed to have gotten a “free month” with December that I didn’t really mind it when it started snowing now.

Eventually when I get a little more spare “seat time” I have a fun tutorial to share with you.

Small successes

2011-12-30T16:11:00.001-06:00

I have Proverbs 31 Ministries daily devotional delivered via email every day. Today’s really hit home with me.

You can check it out here: Proverbs 31 Ministries Devotional – When the End Goal Seems to Hard by Lysa TerKeurst

I need to celebrate the small successes more like Lysa’s friend did with resisting the bag of M&M’s. I have a hard time with that. At the time, I never see how resisting once can start a pattern, so what the heck why not eat the M&M’s! I want to see pounds drop away quickly, not a pound or two a week. I want to finish a quilt in a day not months. I want to get my house cleaned in a few hours not all day. I want it and I want it fast. Not always in God’s timing though is it?

This morning is a good example…I was scheduled to have a nucleoplasty procedure on my lower back today but I had the unfortunate circumstance of coming down with the flu yesterday, so today was a no-go. While I was feeling better this morning, I hadn’t been fever free for long enough. My timing was to have the surgery done now while on Christmas break from work, on this years insurance deductible and be ready to head back to work on Tuesday. 4 – 6 weeks recovery brings me to a week or two before we lead another mission trip to Hackleburg, Alabama. Good plan, eh?

However, God’s timing & plans can be different than ours can’t they? I am rescheduled for January 13th which bumps me right up against our Alabama departure date of Feb. 18th. So, I’m praying for a cancellation and a problem free recovery so I’m ready to roll for the week we are gone. And maybe, just maybe this hitch in my plan is so I rely on God just a little more and get my strength from him instead of my own will. Could be?

Day 25–“The number 25”

2011-12-26T21:11:00.001-06:00

Day 25 of Susan’s 25 pictures of Christmas photo challenge is “The number 25.” Shouldn’t this have been easy? Not so much. So no matter how lame it is, here’s a “25” log bonfire!

Our December weather has been unseasonably warm for us, in the 30’s, so my SIL and BIL decided to have a Christmas bonfire up on a hill behind their farm.

And the fire came complete with a beautiful sunset.

What a great way to celebrate Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-24T22:52:00.001-06:00

Merry Christmas 2011 from the Millers!

Day 24–Children, Sleeping

2011-12-24T04:23:00.000-06:00

This child who is sleeping is the real reason for this season.

We can get so wrapped up in baking, parties, shopping, etc that we lose the real focus of why we celebrate Christmas.
On Christmas Day we celebrate that Jesus Christ came to earth in human flesh born in a meager barn to save us from ourselves. There can be no better gift than that!

As the hustle and bustle of the next few days ramps up, we need to remember why we really celebrate.
It’s not about “did we get what we wanted?” or “did we get any gifts at all?” “or was the ham done to perfection?” or “did somebody say something they shouldn’t have at a family gathering?”. Can anyone else relate to these statements?

It’s ALL about Jesus and I, for one, need to remind myself of that fact instead of letting myself get stressed out trying to make sure everything goes like I think it should and trying to make everyone happy.

Yes, Jesus is the ONLY reason for the season and that’s reason enough for me to celebrate!

Day 23–A Shining Star

2011-12-23T21:13:00.001-06:00

Day 23 of Susan’s 25 pictures of Christmas photo challenge is A Shining Star.

Last weekend we took in a Luminary walk in a local town. All(mostly) the neighbors in a 4 – 5 block area lined their sidewalks with luminaries. It was a nice enough evening for December so DH & I and another couple decided to walk the Walk.

Some used paper bags as luminaries while others used mason jars [my personal favorite].
This particular house decorated all of their jars with a “Shining Star” and raffia and they had a lot of jars to decorate.

This street the Walk was on has many beautiful older homes. They look even more stunning when lit up at Christmastime.

I especially liked how some decorated their lamp posts.

There was even a photo opp with Santa and Mrs. Claus.

So, only two days to go…who’s ready for Christmas?!?

Day 22–Holiday Greetings

2011-12-22T04:42:00.000-06:00

Today is Day 22 of Susan’s 25 pictures of Christmas photo challenge and the subject is Holiday Greetings.

Don’t you just love this time of year when you can go to the mailbox and see something other than bills and almost on a daily basis?

I love receiving Christmas cards, especially the photograph kind. I even like getting the “brag letters”. Honestly, most of the ones we get aren’t braggy at all but just an update of what’s going on in their life so I enjoy reading them.

After we read them, I put mine in a little tin Merry Christmas bucket on our kitchen island so I can look at them and re-look at them as Christmas gets closer.

In our old house, we had archways that went between the kitchen and dining room and the dining room and living room so I used to tape them to the archways. When you receive Christmas cards do you display them in any way? or do you just store them away? Do you keep them from year to year or dispose[gasp] of them after Christmas is over?

Day 21–Tiny Tots with their eyes aglow

2011-12-21T04:42:00.000-06:00

Day 21 – Tiny Tots with their eyes all aglow --

One of my favorite Christmas memories when our boys were young was this…

We had gotten them each a remote controlled CAT construction toy. After everything else was opened and wrapping papers cleaned up, we brought these special gifts out.

We had wrapped the boxes with only paper over the ends. DH stood around the corner and pressed the remote. When the engine started up, they went crazy. Then he moved it forward and it broke through the paper at the end of the box. The expression on their faces was absolutely priceless (see top picture). Good times!

Day 20–A Winter Wonderland

2011-12-20T04:00:00.000-06:00

I’m cheating a bit here as we haven’t had much snow yet this year. Mind you, I’m not complaining in the least.

These were taken last December after a foggy morning with the frost still hanging on the trees and bushes. Beautiful!

I can appreciate the beauty of a pristine winter landscape. It’s just this part that I can do without! Thankful for the plow trucks and drivers but not thrilled to be driving in it.

Day 19–Toys in Every Store

2011-12-19T20:02:00.001-06:00

Sorry! passing on this one! No pictures to share.

A Christmas finish

2011-12-18T21:23:00.001-06:00

Earlier this fall while at a quilt show, I saw this fabric line and fell in love with it. It’s Montana Modern by Bernatex. I’ve been wanting to make a Christmas quilt without being over the top Christmasy and these prints fit the bill to a tee. The black paisley border is my favorite, with the green snowflakes coming in a close second.

I started this quilt with the intention of making it a large twister but once I had the initial squares sewn together, I couldn’t bring myself to cut it up. I love the big blocks and the quilting my friend Joyce did is really accentuated in them.

Love it! This will definitely be one of those Christmas decorations I can’t wait to get our every year.

Day 17/18–Mistletoe & a Cup of Cheer

2011-12-18T21:12:00.001-06:00

Did you see that? Neither did I! Day 17 and it’s picture of mistletoe flew by me so fast I couldn’t catch it.

In all honesty, I looked all over Google to find a picture like the mistletoe bell that used to hang in our home when I was a little girl. It was plastic and hung beneath a really ugly glittery green bell. Even back then, I remember thinking how cheezy it looked. Anyway, I looked through image after image and none were to be found, so I’m moving on to Day 18.

Day 18 – A cup of cheer…

I’m not much of a drinker but do enjoy a glass of wine every once in a great while. My only stipulation is it has to be sweet and fruity. This blackberry wine form a local vineyard definitely fits that bill!

I’ve been playing around with picnik.com altering my photos throughout this challenge and I’m hooked. Picnik makes it so easy to play with effects on your photographs. So far I’ve only used the free part but I might have to spring for the Premium in the future.

Day 16–A Hippopotamus–seriously Susan?

2011-12-16T07:04:00.001-06:00

If I don’t stop eating these…

I am going to look like a Hippopotamus!
or at least as round as the snowman standing guard over them.

Cookies made with these little devils are wonderful by the way!
Thanks Nancy for introducing me to them.
Recipe Courtesy of Recipe Girl and found through Pinterest!

Pinterest and peppermint kiss cookies. Two serious addictions. Somebody stop me!

Day 15–Silver Bells

2011-12-15T04:18:00.000-06:00

Silver bells, silver bells
It's Christmas time in the city!
A few pics from last years trip into the big city at Christmastime…

Day 14–A Decked Hall

2011-12-14T04:52:00.000-06:00

Do you remember a few days ago when I mentioned my work Holiday Walk? when I was making the blue popcorn?

Our building theme this year was “A Smurfs Christmas.” Yes folks, sorry this is your governmental body at work. It’s only one morning a year and it’s on our own dime so it’s all good right?

Quite the motley crew…some get into this stuff a bit much. LOL

Our building is mostly men but the last few years the Nursing department from another building has joined us for the Holiday Walk as well so it’s a more even ratio of men & women.

We had Smurf bowling…

Our “decked hall”

Lots of blue food…popcorn, Rice Krispie treats, blue jello, blue velvet cupcakes, blue corn chips, blue fruit dip, cookies, etc.

This little guy kept watch over the food table.

We even had a Smurf toilet aka punch bowl. Sick, I know, but that’s how my guys roll.

After everyone was done snacking in our building, we were off across campus to other buildings to see what they had to share.

It really is a fun morning.
You can check out pictures from a couple of past years here during A Miser Christmas and here for Christmas – Redneck style which I still think was our most fun to date.

Day 13–Reindeer

2011-12-13T04:34:00.001-06:00

I don’t have a single reindeer in the house. Can you believe it? This is the closest it’s get around here.

He doesn’t look very happy that I woke him up from his nap does he?

Day 11–Something Sticky

2011-12-12T20:27:00.001-06:00

Day 11 calls for a photo of “Something Sticky.”

My “Something Sticky” doesn’t have anything to do with Christmas, but this is what was waiting for me when I walked in the door after work tonight.

See the sticky BBQ sauce? Work with me – I’m stretching here!

DH makes great homemade chicken tenders and he made supper tonight. What a wonderful surprise for a Monday night when I seem to be the most tired for whatever reason. And yes, I like a few peas with my big ol pat of butter. My sins found me out, didn’t they? Add a bit of spaghetti squash and a wonderful supper was had.

What do you call the evening meal in your family? Supper or dinner?

Day 11–Ribbons & Bows

2011-12-11T21:41:00.001-06:00

Today is Day 11 of Susan’s 25 day photo challenge and it’s supposed to be a photo of Ribbons & Bows.

Well, since I have nothing wrapped yet, the location to put them under when they are wrapped will have to do.

Day 3 was “The Christmas Tree” which I didn’t have up at that point so I’ll share it now.

The last few years we haven’t put a big tree up. We have been gone over Christmas which pushed our family Christmas to Thanksgiving weekend, so I just never got that far into the decorating. As a child growing up we always had a real tree. We kept that tradition up with our boys until they got older and too busy to help with or care about cutting down a tree for Christmas. About ten years ago I bought an artificial tree for those same reasons. I don’t know what I was thinking! You can remove the girl from the traditions but you can’t take the traditions out of the girl!

This year, we decided it was time for a real tree again, so DH (so NOT Mr. Christmas), agreed to go along for the ride, so to speak.

Today was a beautiful day to be out wandering around a tree farm it was! Notice, no snow on the ground for us yet. I, for one, am perfectly happy with that!

Putting on a happy face for me…

instead of his typical Ebenezer look.

This is really why I brought him along. Somebody has to do the dirty and lay on the ground to work the saw. Shhh! don’t tell him tho. All joking aside, it was a great time together.

and hours later, presenting Christmas Tree 2011.

Day 10–Away in a Manger

2011-12-10T05:03:00.000-06:00

Day 10 in Susan’s photo challenge is “Away in a manger”.

This little manger set was in a box of odds and ends Christmas decorations I purchased at a household auction the first year we were married. I bought the box for the lights and didn’t realize it was at the bottom until I got home.

It’s a chintzy little ivory colored plastic set with gold embossing but I love it! Not because of the look but because of the memories. Since it was plastic, when the boys were little they could play with it which they did. Baby Jesus almost always turned up missing at some point during the holidays but we always found him back.

The cool thing now is to watch the Grandkids play with it. All this enjoyment for a dollar at a household auction!

Day 9–Santa Claus

2011-12-09T16:42:00.001-06:00

Day 9 – Santa Claus…These two Santa’s are the only ones I have in my house. Not really into the whole Santa decoration thing but love these Jim Shore ones!

Any guesses?

2011-12-08T20:21:00.001-06:00

Tonight, I’m making food for our Christmas walk at work tomorrow.

Our building usually goes a little overboard with the theme and dressing up. We’ve done Redneck Christmas (we’ll never top this one – it just came so natural), How the Grinch stole Christmas (I guess I never posted about the Grinch year – sorry), and last year, A Miser Christmas to name a few.

Any guesses on what this year’s theme might be by looking at the food picture?

There isn’t a prize for the winning guess, just the pure satisfaction that you got it right!

I’ll post the answer here _______tomorrow night because I’m sure you’re all dying to know but you’ve got to guess first!

Answer:

The blue popcorn was one of many blue foods for A SMURF Christmas! More pictures to follow in a few days.

Day 8–Stamped and Addressed Christmas Cards

2011-12-08T04:46:00.000-06:00

Day eight’s topic is stamped and addressed Christmas cards.

What, you can’t see the picture of my cards??? Really???
that’s because I haven’t completed that task yet!

There was a time when I wrote our Christmas cards out over Thanksgiving weekend and mailed them the following Monday. That’s not been the case the last few years. If I have them in mail the week before Christmas, I’ll be ecstatic!

Day 7–A Wreath with a Red Bow

2011-12-07T04:41:00.000-06:00

Today is Day seven in Susan from This Day’s 25 day photo challenge and the subject of the day is a wreath with a red bow.

I just happen to have one hanging on the porch!

Day 6–A Candy Cane, or Five

2011-12-06T04:42:00.000-06:00

Today is Day six of Susan from This Day’s 25 day photo challenge and the subject of the day is A Candy Cane, or Five.

The only candy canes I have in the house I have sitting in an old enamel mug. I bought them at a craft shop after Christmas one year on clearance and they’ve become one of my favorite Christmas what-nots.

Day 5–Something Warm & Tasty

2011-12-05T02:48:00.000-06:00

This mix has become of somewhat of an expected tradition at my workplace. When I first started in my division, at Christmastime, I brought bags of Praline Chex mix for all of the guys and women I work with.
It’s become a tradition to the point of being told if I ever leave, they’ll expect a box full shipped at Christmastime. LOL

It’s an easy and oh, so yummy Chex mix. I’ve made it for so many years, I can’t remember where I initially got the recipe but I’ll share it anyway.

Can you see all the brown sugar and butter gooey-ness ? oh, yeah, it’s there! It’s really tasty when it’s warm right out of the oven. mmmm!

Praline Chex Mix
3/4 cup butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 cups Rice Chex
2 cups Corn Chex
2 cups Wheat Chex
2 cups pretzels
1 cup pecans (I usually use mixed nuts)

Bring brown sugar & butter to a boil and boil for 2 minutes. (I use the microwave).
Mix together the cereal, pretzels and nuts.
Pour brown sugar syrup over the cereal mixture.
Pour onto a greased jelly roll pan and bake at 350 for approx. 8 minutes, stirring halfway through.

You’ll love it but be careful, it’s addicting!
Let cool and store in an airtight container. This freezes well too.

Day 4–Presents Wrapped Under A Tree

2011-12-04T04:33:00.000-06:00

Again, this topic presents a challenge since we don’t have our tree up yet(see yesterdays post) nor do I have any gifts wrapped.

While babysitting the grands yesterday, I thought what better present could I find under a tree than our three grandchildren, so here you go…

gifts by a tree that are far superior to anything that needs to be unwrapped! We are so blessed!

It’s FINISHED!

2011-12-03T21:42:00.001-06:00

This quilt has been over three years in the making. DH & I went away for our anniversary 3-1/2 years ago and on the way home we stopped at a quilt shop. Go figure, right? While browsing, he said “why don’t you ever make me a quilt?”. I didn’t know he really wanted one so long story short, we came home with fabrics he personally picked out for his quilt. He wanted a Case-IH Magnum colored quilt. For those of you not involved in farming, this means nothing. Suffice it to say, that a Magnum is a red & black with silver colored tractor.

(How does a person give photo rights from a Google search? Since the name is on the picture – is that good enough? just wondering)

I started on his quilt not too long after we returned home but then it sat, and it sat, and it sat until the last couple of months.

I either finally got the mo-jo to finish it or I just got sick of looking at that tub taunting whenever I started a project other than his quilt. You decide.

The striped part of the blocks are foundation pieced – nothing too difficult but incredibly time consuming. I really love the way it came together especially the narrow red border and the outer pieced border.

I don’t like a plain back on a large quilt so I added a few of the red fabrics that were on the front of the quilt to the back. The grey pieces are part of the Moda Wool n Needle line. It’s an incredibly soft brushed cotton and will be really warm.
Fuzzy the cat must have tired of this picture taking folly – I think he’s snubbing me.

The picture is a little light but here’s a close-up of the quilting courtesy of Mrs. So & So’s long arm quilting. The pantograph pattern she used was called “dizzy”. Love the way it turned out.

So happy this turned out the way it did and to finally have this project completed and behind me.
Now, maybe I won’t feel so guilty when I work on other things. Yeah, unfortunately I roll like that. I’m a completed project kind of gal and don’t handle unfinished business very well.
Quilting is great therapy so I’m working through my guilt complexes one quilt at a time!

Day 3 – The Christmas Tree

2011-12-03T13:59:00.001-06:00

Today’s challenge photo was a tough one since we don’t have our tree up yet. I have a few small table toppish sizes around the house as decorations but not what I would call “The Christmas Tree”. The last 4 years, we haven’t put a large tree as we’ve been gone on Christmas Day or the day after. I’ve kind of gotten used to not having a large tree. Does that mean I’m getting old??
However, weather permitting, next weekend, we’ll be trekking through a tree farm somewhere and playing lumberjack cutting a tree down.

With all that being said, I thought I would share what has become something of tradition in a town near us. Every year for at least the past 31 years, these home owners decorate this tree with lights. In fact it’s so well known that there are questions like “is the apple lit yet?” or “did they put up the apple this year?”

It never changes although it’s gotten bigger, but every year I still have to do at least one drive by to take a peek at it. It’s officially the Christmas season when “the apple” is lit!

Day 2– a LIST

2011-12-02T04:51:00.000-06:00

Day 2 of Susan’s challenge asks for a picture of a list. This one is an easy one…

Hello, my name is Lori and I am a list girl!

I make shopping lists, have calling lists in my cell phone, have to-do lists on my computer and use Google Reader to list the blogs I follow, not to mention all the sticky notes that line my desk on a regular basis. I am lost without a list.

I can’t help but share this video today as well regarding lists. Now, before any of you who work retail take offense at this…you are a saint to deal with the public on a daily basis and I do feel sorry for these clerks but the items these guys are asking for are stinking hilarious! Enjoy!

Black Friday shopping lists

Day 1–Something RED

2011-12-01T04:56:00.000-06:00

Today is Day one in Susan from This Day’s 25 day photo challenge and the subject of the day is Something RED.

I really like this RED mitten decoration but what I like even more are the sleigh bells hanging behind it. They’re from when I was a child. When the boys were young, these bells would hang on the kitchen door in our old house. I’ve tried hanging them on doors here in this house but the cats like to play with them a little too much. Not that I’m opposed to them batting them around a bit. They’ve withstood my childhood and our three boys but at 2am, which seems to be their chosen time, no thank you!

Susan’s “25 days of photos” challenge

2011-11-30T11:56:00.001-06:00

I’ve been neglecting this poor little ol’ blog something terrible lately so when Susan from This Day came up with the 25 days of photos challenge, I thought why not? Maybe it’ll get me back in the blogging swing again.

I can’t promise I’ll post all 25 items.
I mean really? a hippopotamus? Susan, my girl, what were you thinking?
But I’m going to give it a whirl and see what happens with it. Some days I may post only a photo and other days may have a story to go along with it.

Why don’t you join in and play along? Don’t feel you have to have a big fancy camera. The one I use is just a little point and shoot, so you can’t use that excuse. It will just be fun to see what others come up. Think about it but don’t think too long as the challenge starts tomorrow! December 1st already! Only 24 more days to get my projects done. Yikes!

Here’s Susan’s list…

Something Red
A list
The Christmas tree
Presents wrapped under the tree
Something warm and tasty
A candy cane, or five
A wreath with a red bow
Stamped and addressed Christmas cards
Santa Claus
Away in a manger
Ribbons and bows
Something sticky
Reindeer
A decked hall
Silver bells
A hippopotamus
Under the mistletoe
A cup of cheer
Toys in every store
A winter wonderland
Tiny tots with their eyes all aglow
Holiday greetings
A shining star
Children, sleeping
The number “25”.

Now to think of something red for tomorrow. hmmm…

the Friends part…so thankful

2011-11-29T17:00:00.000-06:00

Every year for the past 30 years over Thanksgiving weekend this group of nine ladies gets together.

We all graduated from high school in 1979. We didn’t get together for the first couple of years but have every year since 1981. I don’t think any of thought that we would still be doing this 30 years later.

Some years there are more of us in attendance than others. This year we were missing 2 others.

We rotate the hosting between homes so no one has to host every time. This year it was my turn again.

Through the years, this group of women have celebrated accomplishments, our children's births(two of us with sets of twins) marriages and now grandchildren's births, mourned parents and children's deaths and divorces and endured cancer and other illnesses. Most of us still live within 50 miles of each other with the exception of one gal who lives in Texas but she usually comes home to see family over Thanksgiving so is able to attend most years.

It’s so fun to have a group of people that you may only see once a year but you can pick up right where you left off. We know each others idiosyncrasies and still love each other just the same.

Yes, I’m very thankful for old friends!

Thankful for family and friends

2011-11-28T21:21:00.001-06:00

Thanksgiving weekend – oh how I love a four day weekend! The beauty of working in an educational institution and not retail. That being said, I feel really sorry for the employees of retail establishments that have to now work on Thanksgiving Day for petes sake. As if Black Friday isn’t enough? Do stores really need to be open on Thanksgiving Day or for that matter, do stores even need to open at midnight or 4am on the day after? When did Black Friday turn into a competitive sport anyway? I would bet there could be the same amount of shopping done if they didn’t all open until 9am on Black Friday but what do I know? (sorry – rant over. I really didn’t intend to go there but it just started flowing) I for one prefer Cyber Monday where I can sit in the comfort of my home at the computer and shop to my hearts content.

It’s been so long since I’ve posted anything that I could try and make up for lost time and go back and hit the highlights of the last three weeks but I can’t even think about what we all did or what I would have to say so let’s just start with Thanksgiving weekend.

The family part:
Dinner on Thanksgiving Day was at our house with ham as the main course (no turkey here-not a fave) and some requested favorites such as sweet potato casserole, spinach cheese dip, cheezy potatoes(by SIL Sue), deviled eggs (ala DIL Heidi - she makes the absolute best) & pumpkin pie to name a few. Add to that pecan pie(by nephew Nathan), cranberry crunch and cream puff cake as well as some rockin’ brown sugar green beans (thanks to Marlene’s recipe) and homemade artisan bread. There was way too much food but isn’t that part of what Thanksgiving is about? Plus, I love me some leftovers. I didn’t cook all weekend until Sunday dinner.

Our guests were our immediate family, DH’s brothers family and DH’s mom. It was such a blessing to have DH’s mom, Gloria with us. Three weeks ago we were told she wouldn’t live more than a couple of days. The day after all the family was called in she snapped out of it! Just look at her now! (with some adorable great-grandchildren – not that I’m partial to these three or anything )

Amazing turn around!

On Friday, these three cuties spent the day with me while Mom & Dad worked and on Saturday I went to their house and helped back and decorate Christmas cookies. It was great to spend so much time with family.

The friends part:
(to be continued)

more to come

2011-11-27T22:32:00.001-06:00

Holy cow, almost three weeks since I’ve posted anything on here. The entire fall season has been crazy busy but I’m seeing a slow down coming even though we’re heading towards Christmas. Odd, but I’ll take it. More posting to come in the next few days.

Have a great Monday!

Harvest moon

2011-11-11T21:14:00.001-06:00

This picture doesn’t do it justice but we had the most beautiful orange harvest moon earlier this evening.

I have a love/hate relationship with Daylight Saving Time. I leave home in the dark in the morning and return in the dark in the evening – not a fan. I only see my house in the daylight on the weekends this time of year.
But the other part of me likes the cozy, snuggliness of cooler weather. So if it has be dark so early at least this moon was something nice to look at.

And so it begins...

2011-11-09T14:45:00.000-06:00

Notice the white stuff

Ugh! and it's only November!

Whirlwind

2011-11-08T19:50:00.001-06:00

I couldn’t hardly believe it when I looked at the last post date and it’s been two weeks since I’ve blogged.

It’s been a whirlwind two weeks for sure.

A few highlights…

A bloggy friend get together at Tanners Orchard in Speer, Illinois.

From left: Shelly, you know me , Debbie, Joyce, Sue(no blog yet but we keep encouraging her) and Michelle.

Most of the these ladies I get to see on a regular basis, but Michelle and Debbie are special occasion friends due to the distance between us. It was a fun morning of shopping, shivering, eating, shivering, and chatting and shivering. Yeah, it was a mighty cold morning. The table we’re sitting at in the picture above was right under the heater.

The morning after our get together, DH, myself and 3 others left for Hackleburg, Alabama, where we served doing tornado cleanup back in May (you can read about it here)to work with the organization Eight Days of Hope.

In the span of 8 days, they expected to have 1400 volunteers on the ground in Hackleburg and Smithville, Mississippi rebuilding homes and churches. We participated for three of the eight days and were able to help on a new home for the Galloway family.

The Galloway family worked alongside us in May on the church even though they had lost so much themselves. True servants.

We arrived home in time to attend our annual church conference and so happy we did. What an encouraging time, as well as a few well deserved proverbial kicks in the spiritual pants.

Sunday was a day spent catching up around the house.

Doesn’t everyone dust the tops of the cupboards with an air compressor? No? You ought to try it sometime. Just make sure you’ve done no other cleaning first because you’ll have to do it all over again once the dust settles. :/

This week it’s back to my real job to rest!

Here am I, send me

2011-10-23T18:53:00.002-05:00

This video was played as part of our church service this weekend. It’s ten minutes long but has a powerful message if you take the time to watch it all the way through.

Our pastor asked us how often do we want to wait until we have all the answers and details figured out before we say “Yes, God.” When we should be saying “Yes, God” and letting Him work out the details.
Here am I Lord, send me.

October awareness

2011-10-15T05:55:00.000-05:00

In honor of family members and friends who are battling breast cancer and are truly Survivors in every sense of the word, here’s Martina McBride’s new video – “Love you through it”.

It really touched my heart so I wanted to share it in case you haven’t already seen it.

Another finish

2011-10-13T05:51:00.000-05:00

I can finally show you this finish as the recipients now have their gift. I put together this Twister table runner for my nephew and his wife who were married Easter weekend.

Twisters are so much fun to make. I used fabrics from a charm pack of Fossil Ferns on this one. I’m really pleased with how the bright colors turned out.

I’ve never been in their home as they don’t live close to us so am hoping it works out well for them.

Congratulations to Jason & Mary!

Stay-cation riding

2011-10-12T20:41:00.001-05:00

We had planned to go away on a mini-vacation with the motorcycles for a long weekend but as the time neared we decided that we really didn’t want to be gone more than a day or two right now and to get a hotel room on a Saturday night during prime leaf looking is next to impossible, so we stayed home and rode out from here.

It worked out great. Joe & Kristen(son & daughter-in-law and riding companions) came home late Friday night so we could head out right away Saturday morning. We rode all day Saturday and came back to our house for supper and sleeping. How nice it was to relax like a vacation with no packing and no nasty hotel bed! I could sleep in my own bed which I knew had been laundered recently. I try not to think about those things when we stay in a hotel but sometimes I do wonder. Ok, so I confess, I’m Lori and I’m a tad bit of a germophobe but that’s a story for another post.

On Sunday we rode most of the day as well. We didn’t very far from home but sure added up the miles. We have some beautiful riding roads within 30 – 40 miles of our home. Here’s just a small sampling of what we saw over the weekend.

I love autumn!

Finally MORE Finishes!

2011-10-05T04:18:00.000-05:00

It’s been a bit quiet on the quilting front around here. I’ve have a bunch of projects in the works but didn’t have anything finished to show you. I’m finally to the publishing point!

When we were at the Madison Quilt Expo, I found this cute pumpkin table runner pattern. I needed something different for our table as what we’ve had the last few years has seen it’s better days. Then I decided that there were a couple of special women in my life that needed one as well, so these were created assembly line style.

The pattern called for a patchwork pieced background but I think I’m just as please to keep it solid.

I found this whirligig pattern a couple of months ago at a wonderful little quilt shop in Belleville, Wisconsin (see this post).

The colors are a bit deeper than the pictures shows. I thought I waited long enough into the evening for a bit less brightness. Guess not, but you get the idea.

The pattern used prairie points for the whirligig blades giving it a dimensional effect and I loved the idea of the buttons in the middle!

And to give credit where credit it due, the beautiful quilting was done by Mrs. So & So.

I have one more finish that I can’t show you as the intendeds haven’t received their gift yet. On the chance that they read this or their mom does (yes, this means you, Sandy ), I’m waiting to post the picture.

I have a number of other projects either started or planned but most of those you won’t see posts on for a long time as I’m working on Christmas presents now. Only 81 more days til Christmas you know! ugh!

Fall’s progress

2011-10-04T16:57:00.001-05:00

Sunday was the start of a gorgeous week here in Northern Illinois. We are even predicted to hit 80 a day or two!

Even though we’re experiencing Indian Summer, fall is marching ahead. Compared to last weeks ride, we saw soybeans being harvested

and the corn is getting close.

Some farmers have started on the corn as we saw empty fields and heard & smelled the dryers running. I would guess most will let it stand a bit longer to dry naturally though. It costs a whole bunch less $$$ to do it that way.

Just look at the miles of fields waiting to be combined!

We checked out a couple of old railroad bridges. DH has a fascination with those kinds of things.

Just look at how much the color has changed from last week’s ride.

If the weather holds we’re hoping to get away this weekend for a couple of days a bit further north. It’s been a bit crazy and stressful lately so I’m excited. I think a couple of days away, riding and relaxing, is just what the doctor is ordering for me.

The signs of Fall

2011-09-28T20:20:00.001-05:00

It seems like we have ridden the motorcycle so little this summer compared to other years. It was either too beastly hot or we had something going on socially or physically that we couldn’t.

I was so hoping for a ride on Sunday but the day started out so cold and rainy that I pretty much wrote off the idea. It was one of those dreary kind of days that makes a person feel like taking a nap, so I did!

About an hour into my nap, DH pulled my covers off and pronounced it beautiful out and told me to get my gear on, we were going for a ride. Yea!

The sun had come out and it had warmed up, sort of. It might have warmed up from morning but let’s just say I was thankful I put the longies on under my jeans.

The corn is drying.

The soybeans are dropping their leaves.

The trees are just starting to turn.

The shadows get long much earlier in the evening

and as the sun sets behind us, it’s gets cold really fast.

Yes, the signs of Fall! I love it!

Happy Birthday to my best friend!

2011-09-15T04:58:00.000-05:00

Today is DH’s birthday!

I always thank God for one more year together but this birthday is even more special to me. A friend of ours lost her husband Tuesday night in a tragic truck accident. I think I’ll hug mine just a little tighter as we sleep tonight.

Love this picture of Dan, scrapping steel and serving others, two of his favorite things!

Happy Birthday to Dan! Here’s to many more of years of love, companionship and serving together!

Weekend happenings

2011-09-13T20:52:00.001-05:00

What started out as a quiet weekend seemed to fill rather quickly.

We had visits from our three special little ones Friday night and for a bit again on Saturday.

They are so just so darned much fun to have around. Sometimes, they just crack me up!

On Saturday, I was able to get in some quilt cutting. I didn’t do much sewing but cut out enough pieces for three autumn runners. Now to get them done before I need pine trees instead of pumpkins will be the challenge. [sigh] I was going to work on them tonight but I came home too tired and didn’t think it would be a good idea to applique in that state of mind.

I also opened the garage door to this late Saturday morning.

(notice the “Mom why are you taking my picture?” look)

What a nice surprise to have Joe standing there! He lives 2 hours away so we had no idea he would be visiting. He had come home on some business and had to go back mid-afternoon but we’ll take as much of a visit as we can get.

I am so enjoying the fall weather that’s set in here. It makes for great bonfires like we had Saturday night, just DH & I. We don’t often have a fire for just the two of us. Such a nice treat!

On Sunday afternoon, we took a short bike ride on a few backroads and to Poopy’s for a burger. It’s not unusual for there to be a couple of hundred bikes there on any given warm weekend.

I wish I could somehow transport the smell of this freshly mown hayfield over the blogosphere to you. There just isn’t much better. One of the best things about riding a bike is being able to smell everything around you.

Sunday night we helped my SIL, Sue celebrate her 50th birthday. I tried out a new cupcake recipe…white cake with cherry filling and cream cheese frosting. I used a new cream cheese frosting recipe and let me tell you, it’s a winner. I throwing any others out and sticking with this one.

I just re-read this post and now I know why I’m tired tonight. Whew!

Hope your week is off to a wonderful start!

Madison Quilt Expo

2011-09-13T20:20:00.001-05:00

Last Friday, some friends and I crossed the cheddar curtain (into Wisconsin) and attended the Madison Quilt Expo.

I’ve never been to a show of this size and it did not disappoint on the “overwhelming” scale!

Oddly enough, we spent almost all of our time there looking at the what seemed like hundreds of vendor booths and just a couple of minutes looking at actual quilts in the show and most of those were in the entrance hallway.

On top of that, I took very few pictures. I hardly had the camera out of my pocket. What was up with that???

These are just a few of the things we saw that interested me.

This one absolutely amazed me. All the detail and the itsy bitsy people pieces. I enjoyed looking but it won’t be on my to-do list. I’m thinking this is way higher on the patience level than I go.

I really liked the colors and shading in this one although there is something about the tree that reminds me of an Scooby Doo cartoon where the tree jumps up and runs after them.

This is a little busy for my taste but liked the colors and especially the wonky trees. Wonky trees may be in my future.

I really liked this wool runner. I didn’t buy the kit though as realism set in and knew that it was more in depth than what I have time for right now.

I fell in love with this line of fabric. It’s wintery not Christmasy. Not crazy about the silhouette animals but all the other fabrics are right up my sewing machine! I bought what I could at the show and now have to find the rest. It’s Bernatex Montana Modern from last Christmas so technically it’s not available unless someone still has last years stock. This quilt shop said they had some. I just haven’t called them yet.

See how good it’s going to look in our sunroom?

Between this and the other projects I came home with, I’ll stay busy most of the winter for sure.

Feels like Fall

2011-09-05T18:43:00.001-05:00

Not only did I dig out the Fall deco this weekend but the temperatures have chilled and feel like Fall as well – 60’s today and low 40’s for the overnight. But I love it! Fall is by far my favorite time of year to experience and decorate for.

A few of my decos….

I’m really pleased with how these two outside arrangements turned out. I’ve had the containers out for summer the last couple of years. The flowers had faded and they were looking a tad shabby and not in a chic way. I replaced the flowers, changed the greenery and added pumpkins. I love re-doing things I already have.

I decorate with the basics – berries and pumpkins. I try and keep it simple for the most part.

I found this little sign at a craft show on Saturday. It pretty much sums up how I feel. I really am blessed in so many ways. Of course, there are days it will be nice to have this little plaque as a reminder.

I don’t remember having white pumpkins around when I was a child, do you? I sure like them now though.

Have you started your fall decorating yet?

A chilly Sunday evening ride

2011-09-04T20:39:00.001-05:00

The past few days we’ve seen 90+ degree temps but today it feels like fall with highs in the low 70’s and high 40’s for the overnight.

We love to ride in the fall when there is a crispness to the air and tonight did not disappoint.

Soybean fields are starting to turn yellow. Some of the plants have even dropped their leaves already. It won’t be long and the combines will be running.

Cattle were grazing in the pasture instead of chillaxin’ under a tree trying to stay out of the heat.

Road closed? That doesn’t mean us does it? Apparently DH didn’t get that message.

Tonight will probably be the one and only time we’ll ever have Hwy 2 to ourselves.

We could actually take a minute to enjoy the view of the river. Sure am glad the county deputies were off doing something else and not patrolling for goofy motorcyclist that can’t seem to read road closure signs. How about you…are you a rule breaker or a rule follower? just wonderin’.

We saw some of our friends badly storm and hail damaged corn. Yikes!

And we enjoyed a beautiful sunset! Then promptly came home and took a hot shower to warm up.

Hoping your Sunday was just as wonderful!

Taking charge of YOUR health

2011-09-04T11:22:00.001-05:00

I’m warning you up front, this may get a bit long and a tad graphic, so you can feel free to stop reading now if you’d like.

That being said, I really feel I need to share my story to encourage someone out there that they aren’t crazy and second opinions are a very good thing.

Earlier this year, I had gut issues. I’ll spare you all the nasty details but they were somewhat debilitating. They would come out of the blue and double me over and last for 3 – 4 hours at a time. I kept trying to attribute them to a virus or something I ate. While in to see my regular GP for a sinus infection, I mentioned it.

Before I knew it I was scheduled for the dreaded colonoscopy. They found ulcers in my large & small colon. The doctor, who I’ll call Dr. V, in my local smaller town hospital diagnosed me as having ulcerative colitis and more than likely Crohns disease. He put me on steroids for 3 months to clear up the ulcers and then said we would go from there. The episodes were fewer and further in between so the drugs were working. So far so good right? Well, other than the 15 lbs I gained while on the steroids. grrr!.

After the three months of steroids, I went in for an office visit. I asked about diet. Dr. V said diet didn’t matter but then in the next breath he told me to be careful what I ate. Huh? Then he gave me a prescription for a Crohns maintenance drug so it wouldn’t flare up again, even though he wasn’t 100% sure that’s what I had. I prefer not to take any more scripts than necessary. I’m funny that way. So I questioned it a bit especially when he said it was sulfa based. I’m allergic to sulfa which he knew and I also reminded him of. He shrugged his shoulders and said “it doesn’t matter.” That set me off, just a little. Then I asked the question of all questions which I think really set him off a bit “what is the possibility that something was missed on the colonoscopy?”. A valid question in my book as my Mom was diagnosed with colon cancer at 52. I’m 50. He briskly said in a bit louder voice “I didn’t miss anything!” then gave me a sample of the script and said to try it and let him know if it caused a problem. Out the door he went. I left his office pretty much spitting mad but I did try the med for three days until I broke out in a rash. I threw it out and promptly called the UW-Madison clinic for a second opinion!

I went to my appointment in Madison and instantly felt like I was being heard. This doc, who I’ll call Dr. W, said the pathology reports from my local hospital and the doctors notes were conflicting. Great. He said he would really like to do a second colonoscopy to see for himself what we are dealing with. Ugh! but I consented to it to get to the bottom (no pun intended) of things.

The colonoscopy showed no more ulcers, no tumors and my blood tests came back great! YEA! However, I’m still having some symptoms but not to the severity of earlier this spring so we still needed to do something.

Dr. W’s explanation is that my colon is still on hypersensitive status from all the earlier problems. He gave me medication to calm it down and said after 9 – 12 months he’s pretty sure I won’t need it anymore. Yeah! He also suggested a low carb/no sugar diet, virtually an Atkins diet. I’m familiar with Atkins as I had been on Atkins for quite a while but the last two years I’ve sort of fallen off the wagon. So back to Atkins I go starting tomorrow. I find I do better starting things like this on Mondays as weekend are hard to not eat other things. I might as well get off on the right foot.

The other side of this is if I would have stayed with Dr. V. locally, he would have continued to throw drugs at my problem by guessing what was really going on therefore not really treating the issue at hand!

I ran into a similar problem a couple of years ago after my thyroid cancer. The endocrinologist, Dr. H, I was referred to locally would not listen to my concerns or symptoms. When I mentioned anything, he constantly told me it was my hormones and out the door he would go. The thyroid is funky organ. If your levels, either actual or synthetic aren’t right, it can wreak all sorts of havoc with you. I stuck it out with Dr. H. for two years until I got so fed up I went for a second opinion. I now see an endo, Dr. P., at UW-Madison who also specializes in cancer patients and love her. She monitors me very closely through yearly exams and ultrasounds. She has regulated my Synthroid medicine as well as it can be. I have blood work every 6 months to make sure the levels are correct. But the best part is, she spends time and actually listens to what is going on and adjusts accordingly! What a novel idea for a doctor!

I’m blessed that a teaching hospital is only an hour and half drive for me and I know not everyone has that kind of luxury. However, I’m not writing this to promote UW-Madison or a teaching hospital. I’m writing this to encourage you to take charge of your own health because if you don’t no one else will.

Get those second opinions! Follow that gut instinct and when something doesn’t feel right physically or you don’t think your doc is hearing you, don’t accept status quo, do something about it!

We are blessed to live in a country that has good healthcare available but it’s only as available as we choose to make it. I can’t count the people that I’ve talked with that say “I can’t change. I’ve always went to Dr. ___” or “well, I don’t understand why but that’s what the doctor said” or they just come from the doctors office and shrug their shoulders because they still don’t have answers or processes to get those answers. That’s unacceptable folks! Keep asking until you get your questions answered and if you still can’t get them answered where you currently are, find someone who can. Medical records can be transferred. Your health is too important to be pushed aside by a doctor who is too busy or doesn’t care enough to take the time to discuss issues with you.

If you’ve hung with me through this long drawn out rant, thank you for your patience.

ok, stepping down off my soap box now….

I can see clearly now…

2011-09-03T21:24:00.001-05:00

the angle is better

with the help of my very own design board.

DH is so good to me. I mentioned I would like a design wall to be able to eyeball block placement better. He dug around in his bag of tricks and came up with a piece of 1” Styrofoam, that we covered with white flannel. DH screwed it to the wall and wallah! I can see my projects so much better straight-on than on a table top. It’s not huge but big enough, (about 4’ x 3’) to see most placings.

Thank you DH!

Do you ever feel dumped on by life?

2011-08-23T21:06:00.002-05:00

Do you ever wonder sometimes why things seem to pile up? or come at you in what seems like masses?
I’m not referring to work or your to-do list. I’m talking about circumstances, health issues, financial stresses, family conflicts, change and the like. Our last few months have kind of been like that. We’ve have plenty of good things going on too but there sure have been lots of “not wonderfuls” piling on top of one another in a not so enriching way.
I’ve used the saying before that ____________(fill in the blank) is just one more fly to the manure pile. That phrase must be my midwestern upbringing. Eventually there are so many flies that the manure pile is covered and seems to take on a life of it’s own with all of the flies moving about. Have I grossed you out yet? (truly not my intent) A person can start to feel all bogged down in the stink buzzing about everywhere but not able to get the stink off yourself. Have you ever felt that way?
However, manure doesn’t just stink it can also be a great fertilizer and grow wonderful things. I, for one sometimes have trouble seeing the fertilizer for the flies. Does that make sense?
I truly believe God uses that manure, whatever it is to refine us and grow something beautiful from all the flies and poo. It can be really hard to see that while bogged down in it but looking back on other happenings in my life, I can see why God allowed certain things to happen and what beautiful things grew out of the manure.
I get a daily devotional delivered to my inbox from Proverbs 31 Ministries. Todays’ devotional hit the nail on the head. Please take a few minutes and read for yourself here.

New favorite quilt shop

2011-08-21T20:53:00.001-05:00

DH went with me to Madison last week for some not so very fun tests. He was “my driver”. After my tests were done, a meal was top on my list of things to be doing as I hadn’t eaten anything since noon the day before. We stopped at a little café in the small town of Belleville, just south of Madison for some lunch.

Ironically, just across the street was this wonderful quilt shop.

I really wanted to show DH the building as it’s a converted old store with wood floors and the big front display windows. They’ve done a beautiful job with restoring it and keeping the old charm. I had been in the store one time prior during a Madison trip earlier this month and was more than eager to stop in again. The owner and her employees are extremely friendly and helpful. She has a great selection of fabric and some adorable patterns. This might just become a regular stop. Since early August, I’m 2 for 2!

Sunday night sunset ride

2011-08-21T20:43:00.001-05:00

We took a ride tonight about sunset time. The bike was out from earlier today so since we had to start it to put it away, we might as well go around a section or two, right?

What do you call a mile square area in your neck of the woods? a mile west, mile south, mile east, mile north kind of thing. Here in the flats of NW Illinois, they’ve always been a “section”.

The sunset was beautiful tonight.

Storms rolling in…

2011-08-16T20:55:00.001-05:00

I love to watch storms roll in. I don’t’ especially like what they do when they get here but it’s interesting to watch them come.
Over the weekend I was taking pictures of a thunderstorm on it’s way to ~~pound us~~ visit

and a little buzzy friend got in the pictures.

Incoming!
Doesn’t it look like an plane coming in for a landing?

He was completely unconcerned about me and only interested in his snack.

Happy 30th Luke!

2011-08-09T04:40:00.000-05:00

30 years ago today at 7:10pm, our life was radically changed by welcoming into this world an adorable “big boy” at 8 lbs 10-1/2 ounces and 23-1/2” long our first son, Lucas Daniel.

Luke was such a sweet, funny kid and still is. Why is it that no matter how old your children get they’re still your “kids”?

He’s going through an unexpected rough patch right now but is handling it like a true gentleman.

Luke is such a good hearted, hard working, kind man. We’re so proud of what he has accomplished in his first 30 years but more importantly we’re incredibly proud of who he is and excited for what is yet to come for him.

His work has finally slowed down enough, he was able to come home this weekend so we celebrated with a birthday dinner yesterday. His brothers and families were here and we even had a surprise visit from an old high school friend of Luke’s. [Curtis smelled lunch cooking, I’m sure of it! ] What a great day!

Happy 30th birthday Luke!

We love you tons!

Sunset

2011-08-08T21:25:00.001-05:00

We had rain early this evening but about sunset the clouds started to clear and the sun came out so beautiful and orange mixed with the dark rain clouds.

It even cast an orange glow on the yard.

Stunning!

Bargello!

2011-08-08T21:08:00.001-05:00

For some reason when I say the word bargello I want to throw my hand in the air and say it with an italian accent.

I mentioned here that we were embarking on this project. Friday was bargello day!

I can’t remember the last time I took a whole day and just sewed. We’ve decided we need to do more of this and are trying to schedule monthly get togethers this fall.

Joyce mentions on her blog about how our unique personalities come into play as we sew and quilt. It was fun to watch that play out.

Here I am ~~getting frustrated~~ concentrating so as to not have to un-sew any more than necessary. I am more of a barge right in and a “good-enough” sewer and typically don’t tackle anything too complicated.

Joyce is an excited lil sewing machine with beautiful results. In fact, she has just started her own long-arm quilting business and turns out some gorgeous quilting.

It was Sue’s idea to tackle this pattern. Sue is very precise and has already made some wonderful quilts even though she is relatively new to the craft.

You can even see our different personalities and styles in our almost finished projects below. The pattern is the same but our fabric choices were very different from each other.

What a fun day. I can’t wait for the next one!

Shower for Erik David

2011-08-01T01:45:00.000-05:00

I helped a friend with a baby shower for her grandson on Saturday. A “book shower” theme was used. Her son and family live in ??? town in the United Arab Emirates where her daughter-in-law is teaching school so gifts had to be very transportable. Her son is in the U.S. National Guard and flies back to the states often. With a book shower he can take a few items with him on each flight back home.

The shower was held on her deck. It was a beautiful sunshiny day. A bit toasty but no rain so who could ask for more than that?

We got the idea for the tulle streamers from blog land. Nothing too fancy but they sure added a nice touch. Oh, the ideas one can find with a little googling and blogging!

She had brunch of egg casserole, muffins, scones and don’t those fruit skewers looks wonderful?

All in all, a very nice morning! Welcome to the world Erik David and Congratulations to Grampa Neal & Gramma Lisa!

2nd Annual Hundred Year Flood

2011-07-31T11:41:00.001-05:00

Do you all know what a Hundred Year flood is?Term wiki defines it as this…
A flood so large that experts believe it has a 1 percent, or one out of 100, chance of occurring in any given year.

That definition being presented, this small community of Pearl City, Illinois just experienced their second “hundred year flood” exactly one year and one day after the last one.

You can read about and see last years flood pictures here.

We’ll be helping the town “mud out” and “gut out” homes and businesses with approx. 20 other people from our church. I can’t imagine the discouragement these poor folks must be feeling with flooding of this magnitude two years in a row.

We took a drive last night to have a look and see what we were getting ourselves into.

They were expecting the water to recede enough this morning that most of the houses would be accessible to start pumping out and cleaning up. Some were already good to start last night and clean-up had begun.

DH will be here helping more than I will due to schedule conflicts on my part. This kind of outreach is most definitely where his passions lay. Love that man for stepping up and helping out wherever and whenever needed! Makes a wife proud!

Isn’t the sun setting beautifully over this lake? Too bad it‘s not a lake and soybeans are underneath all of that water.

Praying for the people of Northwest Illinois and Eastern Iowa.

Sunday night ride

2011-07-24T21:42:00.001-05:00

Do you ever have a weekend that doesn’t go as planned? That was this weekend for us. We were supposed to be gone for a couple of days riding motorcycles up into Wisconsin. The weather had other ideas. We finally got some much needed rain so I was really ok with the plans being altered because of it yesterday. Then we were going to take a day ride instead today so it was all good. However, we woke to thunder this morning. We finally went out for a couple of hours at 6pm this evening.

Just a couple of quick pics from our ride tonight.

I’ve always loved this old barn. They’ve kept it up very well.

As a teenager did you paint anything, like this viaduct? This is true redneck graffiti, not gang graffiti as it’s on a back road that only the locals know about. I have to confess, I did just once, the night before my high school graduation with two girlfriends. It was along a state highway so every time a car came we would drop into the weeds. Little did my girlfriend know but where she was dropping was a patch of poison ivy! Doesn’t everyone want itchy welts for their high school graduation ceremony?

The crop dusters were working tonight. They just fascinate me, the way they dip and dive. It’s one time they can barnstorm and get paid well for doing it. In the picture below I swore he was going to crash coming straight down like that.

Have a good week everyone!

A bit of randomness…

2011-07-23T21:45:00.001-05:00

Lately my brain seems to be on random fire so I thought why not share some of this randomness with you so you can know what its like to live inside my head on a daily basis.

On the way to our local “big city” yesterday morning we saw these clouds.

Pretty and strange all at the same time. Do you see the wavy layers in them? Does anyone know what type of cloud that is? I’d love to know.
By the time we arrived at our appointment in “big city” they were dumping much, much rain and where was my umbrella? In the trunk of the car. Not real helpful there. Note to self: keep the umbrella in the back seat, not in the trunk.

Tonight I took a walk about. I waited until it was almost dark as it’s been so hot and sticky here like much of the rest of the country. I.do.not.do.humid and that my friends is an understatement. If I didn’t work in air conditioning all day maybe I would be more conditioned for it, but I’m not. Nuff said.

Anyway, for years I’ve wanted to plant pumpkins and finally this year, we did! I was so excited when I finally got approval from the Pumpkin-nator who just so happens to live with me.

Never mind that they are in the furthermost corner of the yard away from the house, so they’re really on their own when it comes to watering, etc. but they seem to be fairing pretty well.

We planted the “Big boys”, the ones that get gigantic. I hadn’t look at them for a couple of weeks and they’ve grown a bunch since I saw them last. They are full of blooms. I picked a few of the blooms so the other ones produce better pumpkins. My goal is for each of the grandkids to have a giganto pumpkin for themselves. We’ll see how it goes as all I have yet is blooms.

And for my last random thought…have you ever had a shirt that you got a stain on this first time you wore it? I do! The first time I wore this I splattered bacon grease on the front. Grrr! Someday I will get that apron made. Anyhoo, I saw a post on Pinterest about bleaching a design on an old cotton t-shirt. My shirt wasn’t old but I wasn’t going to wear it anymore with the grease spots so what was I out?

Take a Clorox bleach pen and draw a design on the shirt, let is set for 15 – 20 minutes, rinse, launder as usual and wallah, you have a new shirt, kind of. I don’t think it’s too bad for a first time try. I can see where the outline is and where I painted it in but now I know what to do differently should I need to do this again. At least you can’t see the grease spots anymore and that my friends, makes me very happy!

Three generations playing in this park

2011-07-20T21:39:00.000-05:00

We so enjoy our three grandchildren. While babysitting over the weekend, we took a drive into the local small town so they could play at the park. This is the same park I played at as a child and the same park their Dad played at as a child. The playground equipment has changed over the years but the small park remains pretty much the same.

The grands seem to especially enjoy the long wooden train.

We had a discussion about how the bigger around a tree is the older it is and why it has those big bumpy fingers (roots) that come way out into the grass.

They also played on the elementary school playground equipment which is right next to the park. The school that I went to as a child.

Baby sister was pretty unconcerned with the sentimental history stuff and slept the entire time.

By this time next year, she’ll be running and playing with the other two and really wearing Grandma out chasing three instead of two!

Have you ever bargello-ed?

2011-07-19T21:17:00.001-05:00

What’s that?
It’s a style of quilt that I’m really hoping isn’t over my head. We’ve picked one of the easier projects in the book but there might still be more ciphering than what this ol’ brain can handle. Time will tell.

I was able to get the prep cutting and sewing done over the weekend and three weeks in advance I might add.

One of the best parts of this whole project is – I was able to stash bust the whole thing. I don’t have to buy any new fabric for it. Now that feels good!

In the meantime, I have to get to work on something that should have been done for a wedding gift back in April. I’m really excited about what I’m making for the new couple but for obvious reasons I can’t show it on here yet.

So, back to the original question.. have you ever bargello-ed? How did it turn it out? Loved it or never again? do share.

Family Room re-do

2011-07-13T15:18:00.000-05:00

Like I mentioned in the last post, the time for a large project just hasn’t been there these last weeks but I have managed to eek out a few minutes here and there to work on a couple of quickies.

We have a houseguest coming to stay with us for awhile, so we have all but emptied out one of our upstairs guest bedrooms to accommodate her things. The challenge is going to be her name is Kristin and we have a daughter-in-law Kristen. I can only guess the confusion this might cause from time to time.

Anyway, as I was emptying the room, I needed to find a place for some of the things from her room.

Our family room is upstairs right outside of Kristen’s bedroom so it was a natural place for some of the items to end up. A little re-arranging later and our often neglected family room is looking pretty good.

I moved the old radio to the top of the stairs, and added a shutter to it. Love that look a whole bunch.

The tall white cabinet on the far wall is what was at the top of the stairs. I like it so much better over on this wall. I also used an old feed sack and made a new curtain tier for the window. I changed out the quilt hanging behind the couch to a bit darker one and like it so much better. You know how it goes. You change one thing and then there’s that domino effect. Yup, that’s where I was.

DH brought this old stove home one day and surprised me with it. It’s in such wonderful condition and looks great right where it is, plus it’ was too heavy for me to move.

I made new pillow covers. I’ve been looking at this chicken fabric at a local chain fabric store for over a year and finally had a place I could use it. Birds creep me out but I love this fabric – go figure!

Our family room room has two dormers, each about 4’ wide and are so incredibly hard to decorate. I’ve got a start on this one but the other one hasn’t gone anywhere yet. Any suggestions? I’ve already went the small table route and really don’t want to do that again.

All in all, I like the family room better than I ever have since we built the house 12 years ago. Maybe that chicken fabric is what was needed all along. What do you think?

Now that I have some of these smaller projects out of the way, I’ve got to get started on a bit bigger one. I still owe my nephew a wedding gift from April. At the rate things are going, it might get mailed with their Christmas card!

Time for a new “do”

2011-07-12T06:00:00.000-05:00

I haven’t had much time lately for a big project but have managed to squeeze in a few little ones. This is one project I completed (there is something to be said for completing something) and I’ll post about another one in the next day or so.

My ironing board cover had seen better days. I’ve washed it to the point the stains weren’t coming out and it was getting pretty thin. I have an extra wide board so you can’t just find covers anywhere and if you do the print just didn’t do it for me. It didn’t make me all happy inside. I absolutely do NOT like to iron. However, I don’t like wrinkles either so I do iron and need all the help I can get to feel a little happiness in the process.

Here’s the before..boring!

I made my own pattern. It wasn’t too tough.

The challenge was finding something wide enough and long enough without having to tape a bunch of paper together. I asked DH for a suggestion and out he came with a roll of Tyvec left over from building the house. It worked wonderfully. I highly suggest it.

And here is the after. Ironing is a much happier place for me now. It doesn’t take much for me. I really am an easy keeper.

btw – not my toys. I share my sewing room with the grands, a sacrifice I am more than willing to make.

So, what are your feelings on ironing? I have a friend who loves to iron. How about you? Love it, tolerate it or hate it?

Grilled pizza? who knew?

2011-07-11T20:54:00.001-05:00

Over the last couple of years, I’ve noticed more and more recipes and articles on grilled pizza. I have to confess, I’ve been a scoffer. Yes, I’m Lori and I’m a scoffer. [sigh] I am so ashamed.

I finally decided tonight was the night to give it a try for lack of other interesting supper ideas. Do you call it supper or dinner where you’re from? I have lunch during the day unless it’s a nice sit down Sunday dinner and we have supper at night but sometimes go out for dinner. But breakfast is breakfast no matter what.

Sorry, back to the point of the post. have I said lately that my concentration is off? Can you tell? Sometimes I feel like a dog that just noticed a squirrel. Know what I mean?

Anyway, I cheated and bought pre-made crust, a must after a long work day. This particular crust was “ultra thin” and even came with a package of sauce, purchased at our local “mart” store which by the way I detest going to especially after work, not that it matters but I do. The whole “mart” thing is a necessary evil in my book. The only tolerable time to go is at 6am and there’s not very many times that happens.

We fried up sausage, went to our little garden and picked fresh basil and banana peppers, used up some leftover tomatoes and mushrooms, added cheese and wallah! the most incredible pizza was had!

And the best part of it was, DH & I made it together. I love that!

The moral of the story is…don’t scoff until you’ve tried it. You may not know what you’ve been missing.

Garden update

2011-07-10T21:49:00.001-05:00

We picked our first beans & sugar peas out of our little garden today. There’s just nothing better! Sautéed in a little olive oil and salted with coarse sea salt. Oh yea!

that is until the tomatoes start coming on. If the amount of tomatoes is close to the blossoms we’ve had, we’ll have them coming out of our ears.

Look there’s a little guy now.

When I was a kid, we always had a garden and they usually had a row or two of flowers. My Dad had an incredible green thumb.

We’ve got some kind of ant eating the leaves on the zinnias though and they’re starting on the beans.

Bachelor buttons were always one of my favorites in Dad’s gardens.

If we ever get more than a sprinkle of rain, this view will be loaded with yellow sunflowers by early September. We grew some last year to use in our niece’s wedding and loved it so much, we decided to do it again. It sure beats mowing it all!

How’s your garden growing?

It wasn’t Santa Claus!

2011-07-06T22:01:00.001-05:00

As I was coming out of the doors to my building tonight after work, I looked up and what to my wandering eyes should appear but a miniature (not so much) funnel cloud…

I stopped by our maintenance shed and watched is with a couple of the guys. It was interesting seeing it move around.

I don’t typically do storms well. Ask anyone who knows me. So I was pretty proud that I was able to stand and watch this thing and not wet myself.

Of course, I had to be strong as the maintenance guys wouldn’t have ever let me forget it if I acted scared. Momma always told me “never let ‘em see you sweat”.

The weather later on said the funnel that was sighted didn’t have enough strength to reach the ground and cause damage although we didn’t know that at the time.

Not something I would want to see everyday but interesting just the same.

Hangin’ with Ella Rae

2011-07-01T13:19:00.001-05:00

Some people cook with Rachel Ray, I got to do something even better…today, I got to hang with Ella Rae!

There just isn’t much of anything more delightful than a squealing baby. If that doesn’t bring a smile to your face, I don’t know what will.

Good morning sunshine!

2011-06-30T06:02:00.001-05:00

I looked out my window this morning and this is what caught my eye.

I’m off early to my last day of work for the week. Yay! I even get to leave work early today, using up a little bit of leftover comp time before the fiscal year switches tomorrow. Then I’m off late this afternoon to the “big town” near us for a grocery run and the start of a jam packed list and schedule for the four day weekend.

I may be back on here or maybe not, so have a fun and safe Independence Day weekend all!

It’s a golden birthday!

2011-06-28T20:16:00.001-05:00

Today these two little monkeys turned 28 on the 28th!

It’s hard to believe that it’s been 28 years since our world was turned upside down by twins! I wouldn’t trade a minute of it for the world. Well, maybe a couple minutes during the teenage years but not too many.

Now, they’re all grown up with wives and families of their own. It seems like those years went by in just a blink.

They still need us though or how would they tie their ties?

HAPPY 28th BIRTHDAY JOE & JON!

You are two young men that any parents would be proud of and we are! Love you!

E-Reader opinions wanted

2011-06-27T08:15:00.000-05:00

I've been looking at Kindles and Nooks for the past few months now. Do any of you have either? What is your opinion of what you have? What has worked well and what hasn't?

I've been leaning towards the Kindle Wi-Fi. I'm not sure that I need the 3G version. I have Wi-Fi at home and at work. Do you have the 3G and if you do what are some benefits of the 3G?

Would the Wi-Fi capabilities suffice to travel with and be able to use it as an internet connection for other things as well? such as weather? facebook? checking email? Also, can I respond to email on it then? It would be nice to take just one device and not drag the laptop along when we go.

If you have a Kindle, did you get the less expensive version with the ad sponsored screen saver? How much of a pain is it?

So many questions....let me know what you think.

Happy Monday to you all!

A reminder of God’s promise

2011-06-21T20:19:00.001-05:00

Rainbows excite me. As a kid it was such a treat to see them and as an adult it still is. We were eating supper, when my friend Joyce, texted me and said she thought the rainbow ended at our house. She lives 15 miles away from us. I was oblivious and hadn’t even looked outside. So, I grabbed the camera and ran. It wasn’t very bright but it was still beautiful!

This is looking across our backyard and field to the farm I grew up on until 7 years old. Still love this view. I wish my parents were alive. They would appreciate that we could see it from where we live now.

Thanks for the text Joyce!

Lori, Lori, quite contrary how does your garden grow?

2011-06-21T04:55:00.000-05:00

I’m so glad you asked!

I took a walk through the yard last night and snapped a few pictures – between swatting skeeters and gnats, that is. My, oh my are they ever bad this summer! I’m not sure why Noah didn’t shut the door a little sooner to that ark.

Anyway, here is a little of what I have growing.

I love this wire planter. It was a gift to us ten years ago when my Dad passed away from DH’s family filled with an artificial plant which I loved but then I got the idea to set it outside with real plants in it and I love it even more now! It’s resided in the corner of our front porch for the last few years now.

Can you tell I have a thing for red geraniums & wire planters? The red looks so nice and bright against our yellow and white house.

This hanging basket looks the best out of most of my plants and where did I get it? Wal-Mart for $10! Go figure!

The spirea are just starting to bloom.

I found the King Tut grass above last year and absolutely love it with it’s big spidery heads. I have to buy it yearly as it’s not hardy enough to winter over here. It hasn’t taken off much yet but should get 4 – 5 feet tall before the end of the season. A friend of mine gave me the birdhouse our first year in our new house. 12 years later is still stands guard in the corner. Thanks Leeza!

More reds! I like using old things like this metal trough to plant my flowers in when I can.

The flower bed above was just that – a flower bed until this summer. We tore everything out and planted a small vegetable garden. It looks just as pretty to me. We’ve already picked lettuce and everything else is coming along nicely. We ordered some funky Dragons Tongue green beans seeds (which I can’t wait to be ready) from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, as well as a lettuce mix, carrots and cut flowers. We also planted a couple of different kinds of tomatoes and peppers. We used an old bed frame for the tomato supports and old garden gate for the peas to climb. It would all look even better if the AC unit didn’t sit in the middle of it all, but I’d rather be cool so no complaining here.

The ditch lilies are getting ready to bloom as well. I can’t wait to see the orange burst out.

We also planted a few herbs at the corner of another bed. The parsley and cilantro went crazy but the basil hasn’t done much. Not sure why. I need to replant more cilantro. We’ve used more of it than I thought we might.

And this little bugger has been taken within inches of its life a number of times already but we water it more and it’s off and running again. I think the shot of Miracle Gro last week is what really did the trick.

I love Miracle Gro! It makes plants thrive and me look like I really know what I’m doing. I love digging in the dirt, planting and weeding but a green thumb I really don’t have. At least outside plants stand half a chance when it rains which we’ve had a lot of so far this year so I look like I know something.

How’s your garden growing?

Oh my soul…

2011-06-20T19:23:00.001-05:00

these are some of the best green beans I’ve ever tasted. I found the recipe over at Southern Plate. I’m a huge fan of steamed fresh green beans with just a touch of butter and salt but these may have just won out.

Christy’s Sweet and Sour Green Beans have a tiny taste of sweet and even less of the sour. The bacon is what really makes them if you ask me but then you didn’t but I’m going to tell you anyway. My blog-my rules!
I guess you could leave the bacon out and sauté in olive oil but for this first time, I went as the recipe says. Oh darn!

So when you pick those fresh green beans from your garden this summer, give these a shot. I bet you’ll love them as much as we did!

Fathers Day helmet-cam

2011-06-19T19:55:00.002-05:00

Fathers Day started out rainy here in Northern Illinois, as in heavy drenching rainy, but by 11:30, the skies cleared and we were on way for the afternoon.
We’ve had very timely rains lately so everything is very green and lush.

This old barn is one of my favorite spots on our rides. Some time we’re going to have to find a way to drive back to it and take a picture with the bike in front of it.

Not all of Illinois is flat. The northwest corner is hilly and beautiful.

Do you ever wonder who decides what color a bridge will be painted? There must have been aqua paint on sale is all I can say.

We always seem to end up on a gravel road. We’ll be riding along on a beautiful blacktop and crest a hill or round a curve and “blip” it turns to gravel.
If you’re ever driving on gravel and meet ~~idiots who shouldn’t be there~~ motorcycles, please slow down. Not only will you dust them but good, the stones that get thrown will not only chip the paint on the bikes but could injure the motorcyclists as well. This particular truck was very considerate and pulled off onto the shoulder a bit and drove slowly past us.

One of my favorite roads in the area is Airport Road near Stockton, Illinois but once again, it’s gravel. Once the bikes dirty, I guess it really doesn’t matter after that, does it?
The road runs between and under a canopy of trees for almost a mile. Cool, lush and beautiful!

And to throw in a bit of randomness. There is a reason to pay the kid at Home Depot $$ to put things together for you. Ahem, 5 hours later and I was finally done with it but we can’t wait to try it out.
(whew, ignore the helmet hair in the window reflection :( )

It’s a charcoal grill and a gas grill all in one. I love the convenience of a gas grill but it just doesn’t substitute for that charcoal taste. So it’s gas for weeknights when we need supper quickly and charcoal when we have more time on the weekends. It’s also has a firebox for a smoker. DH has always wanted a smoker and now we get to give one a try. If you have a great smoker recipe or any tips, I would love to hear about them.
Have a great week everyone!

What a deal!

2011-06-16T04:23:00.000-05:00

I read different blogs and posts about some wonderful deal someone got somewhere. All the while knowing I’ve never nor will I ever run across anything like what I see. I either don’t have an eye for them or am in the wrong place at the wrong time, that is until the other day. It was finally my turn! oh yeah!

For over a year I’ve been looking for a new rug for under our desk. Oh, I’ve seen rugs I like but frankly I’m too ~~cheap~~ conservative to pay the price tags I’ve seen. However, a few days ago as I was wandering through JCPenneys, I decided to take one more spin through the rug department. As I was walking down the aisle, I saw a pink clearance sticker. I looked at the “now price” and looked yet again. This can’t be, it’s not possible that a 5 x 8 rug that was $220 is now $9.97?!? It was bigger than what I could use at the desk & probably not a pattern that would have been my first pick but for that price, I can adjust and make it work somehow.

It didn’t take me long to stake my claim and drag this big roll of rug to the cash register just knowing that they were going to tell me it was a mistake but they didn’t! Unbelievable! Plus, the checker had a coupon laying there for another 15% off, so I ended up with an ~~overpriced~~ $220 rug for $9.26 with tax. I haven’t been that excited with a purchase for a long, long time.

Where did I end up using it?

In our sunroom and the rug that was in the sunroom fit perfectly at the desk. Now that’s a good deal!

A heart for the hurting...

2011-06-15T16:39:00.000-05:00

If you remember a few weeks back, DH & I took a team from our local church to Hackleburg, Alabama to assist with tornado clean-up. You can read about it here if case you missed it.

Jim went with us and when he returned home, he shared stories of what he saw and did with his wife, Shelly and their three sons, Jamie, Corey & Riley. The boys were so touched by what Jim shared that they wanted to do something more for the people of Hackleburg who lost everything in the tornado that struck their town on April 27th.

They brainstormed and came up with the idea of a lemonade and cookie stand. Mom got busy and baked her little heart out making 15 dozen Peanut Butter and Sugar cookies. Last weekend between a garage sale and a local parade they made over $200 for Hackleburg Helping Hands. How cool is that?

With that going so well, they've decided to step it up even more and get a booth at the Winnebago, Illinois 4th of July celebration. Shelly plans on making 100 dozen cookies! I can't begin to get my head wrapped around that one! If you're in the area, make sure you look them up on July 3 or 4th.

If you're local and would like to help in a tangible way, Shelly will be baking cookies at our church kitchen in Freeport, IL the next two Saturdays and could use many extra hands.

Or if you're not local and would still like to help, she is taking donations of $$ towards supplies. Leave me a comment with your email(if you're a "no reply-comment blogger") and I'll send you Shelly's mailing address so you know where to send your donation. Even $5 helps buy flour, sugar and chocolate chips.

What a great example of servanthood for parents to teach their children and what a great way to involve the kids! Be sure to check out the last couple of posts on Shelly's blog to read all the details.

First “Helmet-cam” of the season

2011-06-14T21:18:00.001-05:00

We finally had our first real ride on Sunday. We had made 3 short trips into town for something or another but not the leisurely ride we’ve been longing for. Sunday was the day!

Every ride needs a good walk-about at some point to ward off TB.

Our friends, Kerry & Kim

just bought their bike 3 weeks ago and already they have 750 miles on it. They’re putting us old-timers to shame!

No ride towards the Mississippi River

is complete without lunch at Poopy’s.DH & I split the “Big Poop” burger and it was still almost too much for the two of us to eat. We passed on the “Poopy sauce” though.

Let me just say, I couldn’t make this stuff up if I wanted to!

While we were waiting for Poopy’s to open for lunch, we took a drive through the Savanna Army Depot (now de-commissioned). This Depot was one of the largest munitions depots in the country during WWII.

One can only imagine how busy this base was during the 1940’s when ammunition & bomb production was at it’s peak.

I don’t remember much about it but I stayed in these barracks for a week while I was in high school. I was part of a summer work program which included a week of “training” here at the Depot. They taught us interviewing skills, resume writing, etc. That was the summer I worked at a local library. If you know me in person, you would know that I’m not probably as quiet as a person in a library should be, so needless to say it wasn’t a job I wanted to stick with.

The Depot has been de-commissioned since 2000 and now leases out office space and facilities for some light manufacturing. The rest of the buildings sit empty.

This little guy seems to have taken up residence though.

A few more wedding location pictures

2011-06-09T06:31:00.000-05:00

Chuck & Dawn’s home is landscaped so beautifully. I enjoyed wandering their yard so much as I’ve had trouble getting any of my plants to look healthy this year with the cold, wet and windy spring we had.

No home is complete without an outhouse, right?

The view from the hammock in the backyard.

Bliss!

Wedding motors

2011-06-08T21:16:00.001-05:00

Our son Joe and his fiancé Kristen were married this past Saturday, June 4th in a very nice, casual ceremony held at a friend of their home. Their wedding was rather unique as it included a car show. A car show? Yes, a car show. Joe & Kristen spend much of their summer attending various car shows and thought it only appropriate to ask their guests that have a classic car to bring it to their wedding.

They were married by their friend, Ernie on the patio of the home. Joe’s friend Steve was best man and Kristen’s sister was maid of honor.

A couple of weeks ago, Joe called DH and asked him to say the prayer for the ceremony. DH was honored to be asked. He thought long and prayed hard about what to say.

In keeping with the car theme, here is what he said….

It’s pretty cool to look out and see all these cars here today.

Getting married is like buying a car.

You go from place to place checking out the different models, maybe take a test drive or two and then settle on that perfect vehicle.

The proposal is made and accepted. Papers are signed and the title is issued. In this case…Mr & Mrs Miller.

You drive away “Just Married”! What a great day!

Down the road the miles start to wrack up. The 3 year/36000 mile warranty expires and that new car smell is replaced by those small children odors. The initial excitement of the marriage may have worn off.

Joe & Kristen, I want you to look at your marriage as a classic car. Care for it properly and it will become a “Survivor” vehicle worthy of any show.

I know of someone who deals exclusively in classic marriages. When you get your marriage through Him, He doesn’t require any money down, you don’t have to make monthly payments and He always issues a clear title. Best of all, His warranty period never expires.

All He asks from you is to keep your marriage clean. Read the owners manual! (hold up the Bible). And bring it back only to Him for service. He has service outlets everywhere and of course, they’re open Sundays!

You can go there and get your tank filled and your battery re-charged and it’s free! Even if you have a major wreck, he can do a perfect restoration and get you back on the road like nothing ever happened if you just bring it to Him.

Let’s pray.

Lord Jesus,

These are the special times in our lives. We’re turning to you to ask for guidance and favor on Joe & Kristen’s marriage. You have given us this beautiful institution of marriage intended to give us a lifetime of friendship and satisfaction. All you ask from us is obedience to Your truth. Lord, please bless this union of Joe & Kristen. Amen.

I was so proud of him saying what was on his heart.

The cupcakes I had been trying our for the last couple of months turned out well. We had Espresso, Banana Pecan, Lemon Curd, Key Lime and Chocolate Peanut Butter cupcakes.

Their friend Chuck, even offered hayrides for people to enjoy.

and no wedding is complete without a family picture. It’s tough to get a good picture with our guys as someone is usually messing around.

After a few trys we were able to get a good one.

I’ll be back tomorrow with a few more pictures of the beautiful grounds around the home.

If you want to know where I’ve been…

2011-06-07T22:31:00.001-05:00

you can start with checking out the Crossroads Construction outreach blog. This should explain where some of the month of May went for me. I’ll be posting a few of the other activities that have kept me occupied in the very near future as well.

Who knew?

2011-05-22T14:52:00.002-05:00

Who knew mashed potato beaters could be so yummy!

Yesterdays sideways day–part 2

2011-05-18T05:58:00.001-05:00

Not only was my day at work yesterday sideways….

After work, I needed to stop at the grocery store to pick up a few things for a meeting we are having tonight.

As I was walking into the grocery store, I thought my jeans felt funny in the backside. However, I didn’t exactly want to be feeling that area of my body walking through the parking lot so I dismissed it. As I was wandering through the store, I couldn’t figure it out and tried to sort of twist the waist a bit as again, I didn’t want to be feeling my backside in the middle of the grocery store. I assumed something didn’t quite get put back in the right place after going to the bathroom when I left work.

I gathered my groceries and headed to the checkout. I leaned over the cart to unload it as I typically would. I noticed when I stood back up that the lady standing behind me was giving me a snooty look. Of course, in my mind, I’m thinking ‘what is her problem?’ and calling her some not very nice names.

I purchased my groceries and headed on home. I sat down in the chair to take my shoes off and when I crossed one leg over the other, I heard a small tear.

It finally dawns on me what’s going on. Yeah, I’m a little slow like that ~~most~~ some days.

I had a huge rip in my jeans, just under the pocket exposing more than I would have liked for the world to see. And of all days to have worn bright underwear! No wonder the lady behind me was giving me that snooty look.

So today, these pants are heading to that big black burn barrel in the sky. Good-bye my favorite jeans! [sniff sniff]

The moral of this story…if your pants feel funny, for goodness sake stop in the restroom and figure out what the heck is going on!

You know it’s going to be a sideways kind of day when…

2011-05-17T20:33:00.001-05:00

your computer monitor does this.

and no this isn’t an optical illusion or a photo that has been turned the wrong way. I went to put a parenthesis into an email and wallah, everything went sideways. Apparently I hit some kind of hot key sequence.

However, there is beauty of working in the technology division. I hollered down the hall, literally, it’s pre-session for summer and there is hardly anyone around. And my personal tech support at work aka our Information Technology instructor came running and fixed it with a few quick key strokes.

The moral of the story is…make sure you’re really hitting the shift & 9 key when you want a parenthesis or you too might have a sideways day like mine.

Blog? what’s a blog?

2011-05-09T21:05:00.001-05:00

I’m not sure what a blog is anymore. It’s been over two weeks since I’ve posted anything and it feels like even longer. I miss not posting but the time has just not been there.

I’ve got no excuses either, other than life has been a whirlwind these past couple of weeks and doesn’t show any sign of slowing down until maybe mid-June. :/

I’ll try and catch you up a bit. Easter weekend we celebrated a very special little boy’s 3rd birthday. He was beyond excited!

Not sure what he was examining here. The cake must have passed inspection though by the look of his face below.

This little guy is such a joy to be around and is the spitting image of his daddy at that age. He looks like Daddy, has his Daddy’s mannerisms and his Daddy’s stubbornness. He’s giving his parents a few fits as he tries to assert some independence. He is 3 though and our guys were worse at 3 & 4 years old than they ever were at 2.

I mentioned to Jon last night how much Owen reminds us of him. He replied how that was encouraging and frightening all at the same time! I t must be that old curse of “when you grow up and have kids, I hope they do the same things you did!”

All the boys were home for Easter service at church with us. It’s always such a blessing for us to fill a row with the family that we love so much. The rest of the day was spent at two, yes, TWO Easter dinners. Can you say stuffed beyond imagination??

Some of the guys raided Luke’s truck for hats before we all left for home after the second dinner. Are seed corn hats and machinery hats as big a deal in your area as they are here? They seem to be a precious commodity, to the point of saying, I’ll trade a t-shirt from my company for a hat from your company. The bartering system is well and fine in this family for sure. Hagie is getting plenty of free advertising in this area after Easter Sunday for sure.

We had a craft day to work on items for our Relay For Life sale coming up in a couple of weeks. Mothers Day was wonderful! I planted flowers and DH planted our little garden (more to come on that another day) and we joined J&H and the kiddos for an impromptu picnic in the park.

And you know what? I don’t’ have pictures of any of it. My camera has barely been out of my purse in the last two weeks but that’s going to change, I promise!

I have a bridal shower to go to for our new DIL, Kristen this coming Saturday and their wedding is a little over 3 weeks away! I am so excited for them. It’s going to be a great day, I can tell already.

Oh, and in the meantime, because we have nothing else going on, we’re taking a group to Northern Alabama to help with storm clean-up in ten days.

Whew, I’m tired now and think I’ll go to bed. I’ll try not to be so absent again but no promises until I get past June 4th.

Hope all is well in your world!

It’s a Glorious Day! Happy Easter!

2011-04-23T22:36:00.001-05:00

Glorious Day by Casting Crowns–make sure to shut off the regular blog music before clicking play on this video.

Crystal Lake Rib House

2011-04-19T12:00:00.000-05:00

Before we did our pre-wedding scoping, we had a pre-wedding scoping lunch. Doesn’t everyone do that?

Joe had been telling us about his favorite restaurant, the Crystal Lake Rib House.

Oh be still my BBQ soul! It was hands down the best BBQ we’ve had on the northern side of these United States.

The place looks a bit dumpy but it’s decent inside. It only seats 26 at a time.

I had my favorite, the pulled pork sandwich which in no exaggeration was at least 4” tall. I ate it yesterday, again for supper tonight and still have enough left to take to work for lunch tomorrow.

Joe had the ribs.

and DH had the rib tips.

And as if they weren’t full enough (we all took home doggie bags), the guys decided we needed dessert too!

Look at the size of those pieces!
Their menu says the place is a gift from the God’s of BBQ. They’ve got that right!

So if you’re ever in the Crystal Lake, IL area you’ve got to stop in and have a bite or two or three or four or until you bust!

Pre-wedding scoping

2011-04-18T21:31:00.001-05:00

We took a drive into the burbs yesterday to check out the location our son is getting married at in early June. You can read a bit more about the style of wedding they’re having here.

Joe’s friends, Chuck & Dawn have graciously offered his beautiful home and yard for the occasion.

This is where the ceremony will take place.

And here is where the reception will be.

They have a few cars to move out of here first though.

This might have a bit to do with why they’re having a car show wedding. They’re thinking of parking the cars here along the driveway.

I’m excited! I think this will be a bunch of fun. Now we’re praying for great weather!

Tomorrow I’ll show you where we had lunch. Oh be still my BBQ heart!

SHE’S HERE!

2011-04-17T21:28:00.001-05:00

Miss Ella Rae arrived early Friday morning at 12:36am weighing in at 8 lbs-6 oz and was 20-1/2” long. She’s a beauty with lots of dark hair. We’re so thankful for this healthy baby girl.

Babies always amaze me. What a miracle from God! How does something that beautiful get created from well, you know? So precious!
I’m so thankful that we’re able to be a part of our grandchildren’s lives.
Being a “Grand” is great!

31 years!

2011-04-12T05:00:00.000-05:00

31 years ago in this country church on a beautiful Spring day,
I married a man who is my best friend.Check out the curly hairstyles and big glasses.

Alot has happened over these last 31 years; many good things and some not so good, but memories were created none the less and much laughter was had along this road of life together. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

31 years! Can you believe it and some said it couldn’t be done. To those of you who doubted we’d make it this far, I say “HA!”

I don’t think we look any older at all, do you?

Thank you for being my friend, lover, husband, confidant, caring father, loving grandfather and Godly servant. Here’s to 31 more! I love you honey!

Sure signs

2011-04-11T21:07:00.001-05:00

It’s a sure sign of Spring when the bushes are budding,

daffodils are blooming

and the everlasting snow pile is GONE!
When I got to work this morning, the pile was gone!
The 80+ degrees we had yesterday must have done the trick. This means that Marlene from Stitchin by the Lake is the winner! Marlene guessed April 10. Marlene, if you could drop me an email with your mailing address, I‘ll send your prize right on to you as soon as I decide what it’s going to be! The next guess was Joyce for April 15th, Di on April 16 and Saska on April 20.

And speaking of prizes, a few weeks ago I dropped a comment on to Karen’s blog, My Red Farmhouse and I won! Last week I arrived home from work to this beautifully wrapped gift.
Now that’s something to come home to after a semi-crummy day at work. Inside this package were all kinds of fun quilty things.
I’d been looking at this book and this charm pack for awhile but hadn’t pulled the trigger so you can imagine how excited I was to win it. Thanks for all of the goodies Karen! Stop by and check our her blog when you get a chance.

Espresso Cupcakes

2011-04-10T09:43:00.001-05:00

Between comments here and on Facebook, a few of you have asked for this recipe and because I’m too lazy to type it more than once, I’ll just post it here.

A friend of mine, Sue, suggested these to try while on my quest for wedding cupcakes. The original recipe came from the Betty Crocker website but as with most recipes, I tweaked it a little to accommodate what I had or was willing to purchase to make them.

Espresso Cupcakes

Cupcakes:
1 box chocolate fudge cake mix (I used a triple fudge mix)
1 1/3 cups water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
1 tablespoon instant espresso coffee (I used 1 T. of very finely ground espresso coffee)

Filling:
8 oz. mascarpone cheese (I used 1-8oz pkg. of cream cheese plus 1/4c. whipping cream -- too cheap to buy the mascarpone)
2 teaspoons milk
2 tsp. instant espresso coffee (again I used the finely ground espresso coffee)
1 cup powdered sugar

Frosting (I used a completely different frosting than what they used) & garnish:
1 tsp. instant espresso coffee (used finely ground espresso)
1 – 12 oz. Betty Crocker Whipped milk chocolate frosting
Chocolate covered espresso beans, for garnish on top

Frosting I used:

Beat together:
6 T. butter
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
Add in:
1 tsp. finely ground espresso coffee
1/2 cup whipping cream
Beat in: 1/4 cup cocoa powder
5 cups powdered sugar
until light and fluffy

This makes a very stiff frosting. If your not going to use a decorating bag/tip, you might want to add a couple more tablespoons of liquid to make it more spreadable.

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350. Place paper baking cups in 2 – 12 cup muffin pans.

2. Beat cake mix, water, oil & eggs on low for 30 seconds then on medium for 2 minutes. Gently stir in espresso powder. (I messed up and dumped it in at the beginning with everything else and it seemed to work just as well.) Divide batter evenly among the 24 cups.

3. Bake for 18 – 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool 5 minutes then remove from pan to a cooling rack. Cool completely.

4. In a medium bowl, beat filling ingredients together until blended well and nice and fluffy. Spoon mixture into a decorating bag fitted with a round decorating tip or a bismarck tip.

5. Poking tip into the top of the cupcake, gently fill the bag until the cupcake expands just a little but doesn’t burst, approx. 1 Tablespoon.

6. Frost as desired. I used a star decorating tip from my handy dandy Pampered Chef decorator tool.

7. ENJOY!

There you have it. They have a coffee taste but not overpowering. I don’t like coffee and I like them.