Summer Reflections

Woody suggested a few minutes ago that I just blog from my recliner on the iPad...and, after coming into the sewing room to the laptop, I think that he had a very good suggestion. It took more than thirty minutes to get the pictures that I took today downloaded onto the laptop...and there were only seven pictures..."things" were just so very slow in opening, etc. I have done much better with my back spasms today...except when I am getting up out of a reclining position...as from my recliner or from the chair where I got my hair wet before my haircut today. Woody had just gotten back from walking to and from the church prayer room, when I woke up from an after-supper nap...and he heard me "trying" to get up to come in here to blog...that is the reason for his suggestion that I blog from in there! But I did manage to get the dusting finished in the sewing room...at this point I only dusted the top shelves of the book cases and all the picture frames. I will come back at another time to actually dust the books on the shelves and all the shelves. I also still have the top of my sewing cabinet...again another job for another time. But other than that the sewing room is much cleaner than it has been in some time. Just as I was finishing the bookcase tops this morning, Elijah came over. He was finished with his school work for the day and came over to "hang out" over here. All of a sudden he said that he wanted to do some sewing. I told him that I thought we could do something with the sewing machine if he wanted to. He then told me that he wanted to sew on the machines in the sewing room rather than the one in the guest room that we do our sewing lessons on. And, then I realized what he had spotted. When I was sorting/putting away fabrics the other day I found a piece of knit that has fire engines on it. I had made him a shirt from this fabric a year or so ago and I decided to pull it our of the bin and perhaps make a tank top for one of the smaller boys from it. I wasn't sure if I had enough for one for Elijah or not...but was pretty sure that I had enough for Isaac. Well, Elijah had spotted that fabric and was interested in making it into something. So we went to my cutting board and I got out the pattern...which luckily I had in his size and we put it on the fabric and there was just enough...so "we" cut it out. All the time that I was cutting he was checking out some of my special rulers...having a bit of a math lesson over here...learning about inches in feet, etc. So I guess I have my next sewing project...sew this tank top together for Elijah. Woody has been very helpful in the kitchen today. The dishwasher was ready to run this morning so I got it going and when it was finished, he put all the dishes away. He also washed all the dishes that didn't fit/couldn't go in the dishwasher. Then he surprised me by making some butterscotch pudding. When I was going through the cabinet pantry the other day, I pulled out a box of cooked pudding and decided that I would make it...well, it had sat on the counter for a couple of days and I guess he decided to get it off the counter by making it! Yummy. This evening I made a new recipe using eggplant: Miso Sesame-Glazed Eggplant. It was pretty good...it was made by roasting the eggplant cut in half in the oven till it was done and then brushing it with this miso/tahini/maple syrup/rice vinegar glaze on it and then sprinkling toasted sesame seeds on top and then broiling it for a couple of minutes. After it broiled I sprinkled chopped chives, fresh from our herb garden, over the top and then it was ready to serve. It was tasty, though it seemed a bit salty for my taste. Woody said that it was a recipe that we should use again...so guess it was a keeper in his eyes! And, it certainly was fairly easy to prepare. It was another very hot day...that is till a storm blew in this afternoon giving our plants a nice drink and cooling the air off some...though I'm sure that the humidity made the air thick enough to cut...though it really wasn't too bad out when I went out to cut the chives for our eggplant dish. Right now Weatherbug says that it is 75 and the humidity is 89%...pretty humid...but the temp is better than our earlier low 90's. Typical summer day. I took tonight's photo this afternoon after I got my hair cut...it was very hot and humid when I was taking the pictures...I didn't tarry long taking them...pretty anxious to get in the car and get the air conditioning blowing on me!