hurrayic

A Little Pick-Me-Up

A little surprise arrived in the mail yesterday.

Are you curious?

Was is a truckload of fabric?  No.

A life-time supply of yarn?  Nope.

A large stork bringing a new bundle?  No... (but wouldn't that be nice?)

It was just what I needed...coffee! 

And not just any coffee...organic stuff...12 little bags worth.  Actually I have to thank Susan from here for letting me know about this fun giveaway.  Thank you, Susan!  And thank you, Rogers Gourmet Coffee & Tea, for hosting the giveaway.  :) 

Delights

"The Man on the Hill" - original work by B

Little delights.  Making time for them is important.  I often need to remind myself of this when I get caught in the swift current that life offers. 

I was listening to my 9 year old's original composition recently.  (top photo) I was amazed, really.  Not that he is a prodigy, but he sat down with pencil and staff paper one day last week & spent about an hour trying out notes and writing them down...of his own accord, because he wanted to.  Yes, the piece needs some tweaking with timing, and he needs to learn where to place the bass & treble clefs on the page, but he had most of his notes correct.  And this, after only a month+ of lessons.

Autumn, the year's last, loveliest smile.
- William Cullen Bryant

I have to remember to go outside more often and appreciate the fleeting colors of autumn: my absolute favorite time of year.  I wish the season would linger...like a warm embrace.  In the past few days, it's turned balmy once again, the air has lost its crispness.  Very different from New England, where once a season began, it truly began.  No rescinding. 

I enjoyed a cup of coffee this morning from my new $0.40 coffee pot!  No, that is not a typo... 40 cents!  My Braun died awhile ago and was replaced with a cheap 'free' coffeepot from one of those coffee clubs (which I belonged to temporarily).  It still works, but does not have auto-turnoff, which for me, is a necessary feature.  Let's just say that there have been too many memory lapses and too many turn-around-the-car-because-I-forgot-to-turn-the-coffeepot-off scenarios.  And far too many calls to my dear husband asking him to leave work to go home & turn it off! So when I saw my new coffeepot on clearance, I bought it.  It's not a Braun.  Yes, it's cheap, but it has auto-turnoff.

Truth be told...I actually bought a package of vanilla pudding with it.  Pudding AND new coffeepot for less than a dollar.  Pretty nice.

Enjoy your weekend!

Happy 44th!

No, it is not my 44th birthday... yet...

Our church has been blessed by God with 44 years of service...of meeting together as a communion of saints with the purpose of worshiping and glorifying the one true God, of encouraging each other in prayer & action, and sharing the good news with those around us.  

So with an anniversary, there's always a celebration...and of course, food!  I made an almond cake using the recipe from the Solo label and changing just a few things...like using whole white wheat flour instead of all purpose and substituting heavy whipping cream for the light cream in the glaze.

Wanted to take a picture of it before it got devoured.  There was plenty of food so I came home with half a cake and enjoyed a slice or two for breakfast.  Now it's your turn...go ahead...you know you want to try it.

Cute

Isn't it cute? 

A tiny little ball of freshly-wound yarn.

Now what do you think?  Still cute?  This is what happens when you buy 1 skein of yarn, and your ball winder & swift don't exactly agree as to who is in charge. At least the future pair of socks (that these balls will turn into) won't mind. 

A Recent Theme

chicken with spinach & tomatoes - served over pasta 
it tastes better than it looks...recipe here

I've got Pat Benatar's Heartbreaker music in my head.  I've added a few new lyrics to the chorus.  Sort of sums of the theme of my daily routine recently:

She's a time waster,
Mess Maker,
Pro-crastinator
Don't you mess around with her...

We have been busy.  Just not with the things that I want to do but must do: refinancing a 2nd time, a plethora of doctor & dental visits, PSAT (whew! done for now), re-organizing the house files (major undertaking), trying to get our will updated, needing to take the car in for an oil change, finally putting away the shorts & t-shirts & bathing suits... all that fun stuff.

some freebies in the mail

We've also been busy with strep.  Yes, it's that season again.  That lovely strep season.  So far 2 of us have had it, 2 are going through it and hopefully the other 2 will not catch it.  This little bug can certainly put a kink in our homeschool/life routine. 

I've also been plagued busy with the disease notion of saving money by couponing & stockpiling.  But I think I've gone a bit overboard... couponing is a big eater of time.  Maybe that's why I don't have enough minutes in the day to be more creative and do the things I want?  Although our wallets are healthier & I am able to buy more organic more cheaply (like my recent visit to Whole Foods & saving almost $100 by using coupons), finding a balance will be optimal.  Because isn't time money too?  Trying to balance those things and fitting in/making room for what is most important is necessary. 

 
 

 

When you visit a corn maze...

When visiting a corn maze, be sure to pick a nice day...

Bring plenty of water bottles with you...

Admire the pumpkins while waiting in line, but don't buy... wouldn't it be more fun to pick your own in a muddy, insect-infested pumpkin patch?

Visit the porta potty before starting the maze...

Wear the appropriate footwear...

Do NOT run in mud...

Try to stick together...

Maybe consult the map first before setting out... (dirty fingernail required)

Remember to bring a pair of scissors for potential flower arranging goodies (or maybe not since said scissors were left at home)

 

Stop & take photos of the other beautiful weeds...

Be sure not to bring any of these little critters home with you inadvertently...

Have your trusty, strong, teenage son carry the heaviest pumpkin back to the wagon... (okay so none of the pumpkins they chose were that heavy, but he can still be put to good use)

Eat some freshly-made cider doughnuts (sorry no picture of that...they were a little camera-shy)

Eat some gooey apple fritters (also camera-shy)...

And of course, hurriedly take some swigs of cider before all the yellow jackets drop by for a chat.

This & That

roasted brussels sprouts - yum!

Not much to report about of late.  School, school & more school seems to be the order of the day.  We're adjusting to a new co-op and keeping up with a familiar one. 

my younger boys in the kitchen doing something other than snacking...

Except for the daily occasional getting-out-of-your-seat-and-roaming-the-house-while-Mom-is-out-of-the-room phenomenas, the kids seem to be settling into their respective routines without too much whining and complaining.  And thankfully archery doesn't begin for another week...

their creations: gingerbread men and mr. cyclops

But boy, I don't know if I'll ever get used to this new weather.  September's end is supposed to be lightweight sweaters, briskness in the air, apple & pumpkin picking while wearing long pants, a definite changing in the color of leaves...

Our 20 year old tent (yes, we haven't used it since then) pitched in the backyard for a camp out.

... however for the past few days we've been wearing shorts and t-shirts and using our ac!  Thankfully, just yesterday I finally turned it off for the season (at least I think I finally turned it off).  The wind has kicked up. The temperatures  have dropped.  Is the cool weather hopefully hopefully hopefully here to stay? 

ugly but tasty stuffed red peppers from here via thyme at home

We'll see.  Now here's the part where I take a deep breath before more school, piano lessons galore and the very great need to meal plan begin...  any helpful suggestions?

How To: Berry Ink

My younger boys are presently studying the U.S. Civil War.  We decided to try our hand at some homemade ink that soldiers during the war might have used in order to write letters home to loved ones. If you want to try too, you'll need some:

berries (raspberries, strawberries or cherries)
        about 1/2 cup (if frozen, thaw out first)
apple cider vinegar - about 4+ tsp
2 bowls
a spoon
a strainer
newspaper
paper (practice stuff & 'the real thing')
quill pen (a calligraphy pen is fine too)

On newspaper, put berries in a bowl & mash them with a spoon.

Add vinegar & stir.

Strain berries over second bowl (so the seeds are not in the ink). 

Add more vinegar if necessary to thin out the ink.

Now dip in your pen & write.  (You might want to check your spelling first!)

And of course, you can always pose with your finished letter once it's dried so that your mother can take a photo of it for her blog your notebook!

What We've Been Doing

Once again, I've been missing in action, but let me stress this time, that it's been a very active absence.  I got into a bit of a slump before then, and I wouldn't necessarily equate returning to blogging to riding a bike.  It's harder, I think.  Well anyway... what have we been doing the past week or so? 
 

We ended the summer with a neighborhood Labor Day gathering where I brought a tomato platter to share.  Sort of like a last farewell to garden tomatoes, I'll-see-you-next-summer dish.

I watched my youngest make a parachute? a balloon? a kite?  with a plastic bag & some string and run around the yard in glee.  Yes, those simple things DO matter.

I made some oatmeal cookies while my children eased back into the routine of piano practice,

We learned the fine art of consuming 3 loaves of homemade whole white wheat bread in less than 2 days! (and realized how easy it was to make...)

We tried a FANTASTIC lentil stew from this cookbook ; by the way, the recipe was liked by 3 out of 4 of my children. Mom, can you take a gander as to who was the holdout?  (I tweaked a few things like adding in more carrots and substituting smoked paprika because that's what I had in the house...)

and we started a new co-op and our new school year! Phew.

Fancy?

(it's actually shorter than it appears in the picture)

Would you call this fancy?  I bought this very plain black skirt  from a thrift store a few months ago for about $3.00.  Love it.  It's cotton with a wee bit of spandex thrown in for big hips good measure.  Side zipper.  might make a good pattern...  I chose to wear it yesterday.  A Thursday.  Nothing special, or so I thought.  At least not until 3 out my 4 children asked me,

"Where are you going?  Somewhere fancy?"
"Are we going someplace fancy?"
"A skirt?  That's fancy..."

homemade beets for salad...yum

Okay, so how about this tablecloth?  Would you call this fancy?  I bought it several years ago from an Indian store.  Once again, I love it.  Simple paisley design, muted colors.  I chose to cover our kitchen table with it and use once-in-a-while, mix & match, tag sale find dishes rather than my everyday dishes. This is the response:

"Wow!  Fancy."
"Is there something fancy going on?"
"Are we having company?" (this is the usual response I get when we clean up the house by the way)

saffron fettuccine with my tomato sauce

 

Sigh...  Very revealing responses, I'd say.  I suppose I should try a few little extras more often.  Making the mundane a little more special. 

Have a 'fancy' weekend!