April Showers!

And, have we ever had April showers so far this month! As you can see from our umbrella and poncho decorated front porch, it has rained quite a bit today and the temps have stayed very chilly...never reached 50 degrees today. Brrrrr downright cold for this time of the year...around 20 degrees below the normal temperature for this time of year here in Middle TN. The dampness just makes it feel even more chilly! Looks like we have more rain on its way when I look at radar. I stayed in the house most of the day. The children came over here for school. Esther and Joy and I had a nice cozy school/sewing time. Yesterday I had Esther sew on sewing cards to get the feel of going up and down in the "fabric" with a "needle" and thread. She did so well that today I found a hoop and had her start just making running stitches on fabric with embroidery thread. At a point after Joy came over, I had walked out of the room to get something and Esther discovered about making a solid line with a stitch called a back stitch. Joy told her what that stitch was called and it became her new friend since she could make shapes with a solid line of stitches rather than a stitch and then a space, etc. She has loved her hand sewing and stuck with it through her school time, Joy's school time and Graham's! And, then she came back this afternoon to do a bit more! Joy also worked on some handsewing in the hoop. Joy hadn't used a hoop before. Elijah had his usual lessons and then read one of his favorite books with Goosey (Woody). Early this morning Woody went on a five mile walk. Then this afternoon he ran to WalMart to get a few groceries since I needed one of my over-the-counter medications. After lunch I took a few minutes to rest from our busy morning, then I got started on making us a casserole for tonight's supper. When there was a break in the preparation for that, Goosey and I headed next door as they had a show that they wanted us to see. We watched their production and then came home and I got busy again on the casserole. Casseroles take a bit longer since I am making my own soup when cream of celery, mushroom, etc. is called for in a recipe. Tonight's concoction that I made up as I went along in the cooking was a Chicken and Rice casserole made with homemade cream of celery soup. It had lots of extra veggies in it too...carrots, green and yellow bell pepper, onion, celery (of course) and green peas. It ended up being pretty tasty...of course never to be replicated exactly again as when it came to seasonings I put in a little of this and a little of that and...I had to do a lot of tasting to be pleased with final seasonings...hardly hungry for the cooked casserole once it came out of the oven! A little while ago there were some tap-tap-tappings on our front door and some little neighbors were returning the bowls from yesterday's pumpkin pudding and one of those bowls had some of their Easter candy in it! Yum! Perfect timing as I had just thought that I wanted/needed some chocolate! The dish washer is going and I'm heading to my recliner (Woody is already ensconced in his.).