Thankful for family and friends

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

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

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...

Notice the white stuff

Ugh!  and it's only November!

Whirlwind

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

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

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

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

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!

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!