Puddles Everywhere!!!!!

And, the reason for the puddles?!?  Lots of rain and then some more rain.  From last night till noon today we got 4 1/4" of rain according to our rain gauge!  And, the rain wasn't over at noon...that is just when Woody checked the rain gauge last.  There are so many puddles...really it looks like a lake in our back yard that he hasn't been running out too often to check to see how much rain we have gotten.  He was glad that he did check, though, as our rain gauge only holds 5 inches.  I just looked at radar and we are still socked in to rain for quite a while, or so it looks.  The rain has lightened up so at least not adding to puddles at the rate that it has at times overnight and today.

Woody didn't walk today...except to the rain gauge and to the mail box.  I continued to quilt on this my third day of Spring Break.  And, I did venture out and go to the church to work in the library for a couple of hours.  Donna and I got quite a few new books ready for circulation...good job done!  I'm heading back to quilting.  The quilting is coming along.  I am finally finished with the sashing and am on to quilting designs onto the larger blocks. I'm tired tonight so doubt that I get a lot farther tonight.  But at least another square or two. I hope!

Spring Beauty!

This afternoon Woody and walked down the street a little way so I could get a picture of this tree!  It is at its peak...and...if I waited till tomorrow most of the blossoms would probably be knocked off since we are due for a lot of rain again tomorrow.

Today has been another quilting day for me.  I have quilted on Joy's throw a good part of the day.  After I did leave for a while to go get my hair cut.  Then it was back to the sewing machine.  I finished stitching around the blocks this morning with a straight machine stitch.  That stitching in the ditch, as it is called, has anchored all the blocks in the quilt so nothing is going to move around any more.  Most of the pins are out except for the squares around the edge.  After I got home from my haircut, I got underway with using machine embroidery quilting designs to fill in some of the squares and rectangles.  I have quilted with the embroidery quilt designs on the sashings. I'm hoping to have those finished tonight before I go to bed.  We'll see, there are still a lot of hoopings and to get those narrow strips quilted.  I'm pleased with how it looks so far.

Woody took a friend to a physical therapy session today.  And, then around 5pm he headed off for his usual Tuesday walk to the church prayer room.  He is home now and we are settled in for the evening. I've enjoyed my second day of Spring Break!

Spring Break!

The neighbor grandchildren are on Spring Break this week so I am foot loose and fancy free!  I decided that today was a good day to get underway with the quilting on the throw that Joy quilted.  So far it is going well.  I can only do it for so long and then I have to take a break...though sometimes it is hard to stop and I go too long and then need to go rest my shoulders and neck!

Woody went to the Life Care this morning.  He missed his visit with his friend, Eric.  Eric had surgery last week and isn't back from the hospital yet.  Though they did tell Woody that he was doing so well that they thought he would be back in a day or so...good news!  Woody also walked four miles this afternoon.  He continues to gather documents, forms, etc. together so he can prepare our taxes.  He is presently at The Furnace Room prayer meeting.  I expect that he will be home soon.  Then we will settle in for another quiet evening.  I think that I will go do a little more quilting before I call it quits tonight.

Early Celebrating!

Look who will be sixteen in just a few days!  It doesn't seem possible that sixteen years have passed since I first heard his cry over the telephone shortly after he was born!  The family celebrated his birthday tonight.  And, of course, fun was had by all!

Woody made his weekly visit to the public library.  He didn't take a walk today since he is still coughing, but he did work in the gardens some more today.  It's so nice to things blooming.  The temps today really feel like spring is approaching.  There is the feel in the air of storms to come. It is predicted that during the night we could have some severe weather...I'm hoping not too severe.

I made potato soup this afternoon...it was almost too hot for soup, but the temps are supposed to drop down a bit lower after this front goes through.

Woody just announced that the skating exhibition has started so guess I will go get the last serving of ice skating for a while!  I have enjoyed the Olympics but I am ready for them to end.  Ready to go back to not watching so much TV in the evenings!  I have made more progress on my Cottey memory book.

 

File Fiddling Friday!

The last several days I have been going through some file folders that contain memorabilia from my two years at Cottey College.  Six weeks from today, if all goes as planned, I will be in the midst of my 50th reunion at Cottey in Nevada, MO.  Nevada isn't pronounced like the state...but the first "a" is long...so "Nuh vay duh."  I am going through the things that I saved and that my mother saved from my two years there...quite a bit of "stuff!"  I have been sorting through things and deciding what would be fun to share with my classmates at the reunion...I know pictures...but the pictures that I do have leave something to be desired by today's standards! Most are black and white...and I'm rather glad that they are as the colored ones haven't held up all that well.  In the end I have sorted through everything and have sorted them by months that we did the things in...luckily I saved the calendar that Cottey gave us at the start of each year with some activities on the calendar so I have a calendar page to separate each month and its items.  What I am really pleased to have is the letters that I wrote home...they give a pretty good history of my time at Cottey.  I am so glad to have them to reference when I am trying to document daily  college life back in the late 60's...my what a change from today...for one thing...very few letters today to refer to when looking back at what you were doing at a certain time...there is quite a change in the economy, too...if only college cost today what it did back then!  Anyway, I am having fun going through things and "trying" to remember some of it!  Some memories have definitely faded!  I went to town and bought two notebooks that I will put items from my first year and second year in...so I will have a couple of scrapbook-like notebooks that my friends can go through if they would like. Lots of memories filed away...just trying to bring some of those memories back to the surface so we can share them and hopefully some of my friends will fill in some of the blanks of my memories!

I got up fairly early and decided that I would complete the pinning of Joy's quilt...well, I ran out of pins so had to wait to finish until I went to the quilt store to get some more.  BUT when I got to the quilt store she was out...so...what to do!?!  She suggested that I spray baste them with special fabric glue...I happen to have some of the special spray glue for fabric so will try that...and, if that doesn't work I will just quilt from the center out (where the pins are and when I take pins out I will put them in the spots that need them near the edge of the quilt.  After failing at the quilt store, I went on to Office Max and was successful in finding the color notebooks that I wanted (baby blue for my first year and navy for my second year at Cottey...I think that the navy one will also contain pictures that I took when I went to my reunion back in 1985.  On my way back home I stopped and picked up a prescription...glad that I didn't forget to get it filled as I keep having twinges in my ankle this afternoon...and am hoping that it isn't gout. The med I picked up is three months worth of the medicine that I take for gout everyday...don't want to miss any right now as I want to be able to walk when it comes time for the reunion!!!  If the twinges get worse I will be heading for my gout rescue med...never need gout, but REALLY don't want it now while I am anticipating my reunion.  I came back home and have continued on with working on my Cottey "scrapbooks."  I am putting items in protective sleeves and all those that I had filled to this point are in the notebook in some semblance of order!

Woody did our usual weekly shopping at Aldis, WalMart and Kroger.  I put the groceries away.  He has also worked some outside...cleaning up the leaves from the gardens...pretty much a job that has to be done by hand and not a rake.  What he has done looks good!  We had leftover casserole for supper tonight so no cooking for me today.  I guess the Olympics are winding down now, but I will head downstairs when I post this and see what events are happening tonight.  I know that Woody watched some events this afternoon.

 

Thoroughly Thursday!

And, another week of school is over for me...seems like the school week goes by so fast.  Joseph came over first, then Isaac followed.  Abigail, Esther, and Joy each had a turn at reading.  Joy is just about finished with her first Nancy Drew mystery.  She seems to be enjoying them.  She asked for mystery books on her Christmas list so Woody and I gave her the first four or five in the Nancy Drew series.  When she gets through with those I have many very old copies of Nancy Drew stored away in the school room...should give her mystery reading material for a while!  Elijah came over for his long time.  Today during his experiment time he made two different kinds of edible slime...one with gummy starbursts and one with regular starburst squares.  The experiment worked and was yummy to munch on !  He also learned how animals stay warm in icy cold water.  He put a layer of Crisco on one of his fingers and plunged it into ice water and he couldn't tell that it was cold at all, but when he put in one his fingers without the Crisco he could feel how cold the water really was.  We talked about the layer of fat that some animals have to keep them warm.

I got the pinning underway on Joy's quilt...have the middle done and a little way out from the middle...a bit more to go.  Yesterday I stopped and bought machine needles that I need to do the quilting.  I'm hoping that I can get underway with the quilting over the weekend. This afternoon I put together a casserole for our supper.  Now I am ready to finish cleaning up the kitchen and then watch some more Olympics.

Woody didn't walk today as his allergies are bothering him and he is coughing.  Today the pollen level is pretty high...guess Spring is really on its way if pollen levels are once again rising.  I think what has gotten to him is raking leaves.  He is often bothered with allergies when he does a lot of raking...probably allergic to the dust on the leaves and leaf mold that is on them when they are wet.  He has done crossword puzzles, read, watched TV and started getting things ready to work on our taxes.

And...They're OFF!!!!!

Abigail's braces are off January 21, 2018!  Woo! Hoo!

Look at that smile!  She has been through a lot starting back on March 1, 2013 when she went for her first orthodontist appointment.  At the start they mainly waited on teeth to fall out and come back in.  But she was underway with a major transformation...as her teeth alignment was such that she couldn't close her teeth together to chew...and today she can!

Here's her picture on that first day back on March 1, 2013:

The next photo is Abigail a few days before she got her actual braces...this was the end of January 2016:

And, here she is the day she got her braces...February 2, 2016:

A picture yesterday of her last day in braces!

So over a period of five years the orthodontist has worked with Abigail doing one thing and another to make her teeth move into the perfect position they are today!  She had her actual braces on for just a few weeks over two years.  She is a very happy girl today...getting her braces off...getting to chew gum once again, etc!  She will be getting retainers...but for the moment she is totally free of anything on her teeth!

I only had Joseph for his school time today.  He and his family went on a home school field trip to an ice skating rink.  When I heard that they were going to all attempt ice skating, it brought back memories of an ice skating trip that Nathan took with the church when he was in high school.  We got a phone call that long ago evening saying that Nathan had fallen and that he would need stitches...should they have him stitched up there or could they bring him home to have him stitched at the hospital here!  We chose here.  The thing that Nathan learned that night was that blood bounces when it comes in contact with the cold ice on the ice skating rink!  Well, when Kathy, Graham and Joseph reported in after they got home from their field trip...I tongue in cheek said...so no one ended up having to come home for stitches...and Graham steps forward with a very swollen lip AND a busted up chin...but not in need of stitches.  I guess he is his father's son!!!!!  They all had fun despite Graham's injury.

I worked on getting Joy's quilt sandwiched smoothly. (Missed your assistance, Connie!)  I think that it's now ready to be pinned so I can start quilting it.  But I think that I have crawled around enough on the floor for one day!  I went to the church library to work for a couple of hours today.  Donna and I got a good start on the newest books we bought recently.  We had had someone give us a Billy Graham book and finished processing that today and decided it was appropriate to make a window display of books about Billy Graham and books written by him to remember him.  What a great man of faith!  Woody walked to the Post Office to mail a package to my sister for her birthday.  (Be on the lookout, Cheryl!).  Woody hadn't made that long of a trek in a while and he said that he was ready to sit in his chair for a while after his walk!

My Least Favorite Thing to Do!

Tonight's photo gives a "hint" as to where I went today...the dentist...not exactly my choice of places that I like to go...I have a real fear of dentists that my logical self can't talk me out of!  But I survived...now as for the tooth that I had him look at...well, that won't survive.  He has referred me to an oral surgeon because of the location of the tooth and the fact that he figures that it will break when it is pulled.  Also there is a chance that the roots go up into a sinus cavity and that could cause a problem but a oral surgeon would be able to take care of that problem if it should occur.  There...I have said it...now I will forget about it till I have the appointment made with the oral surgeon...then my anxiety will probably go up again till it is over!

I had school this morning...a typical Tuesday.  Joy had her long time and got the back to her quilt sewn together.  We have started making the quilt sandwich...the quilt back is on the bottom, then the batting...we have smoothed that out.  I have been clipping threads on the quilt top before it is layered on top of the batting.  It won't be long till it gets brought upstairs to the sewing room and the quilting can get underway.  After school was over, Woody became my chauffeur for the afternoon.  First he drove me to the Drivers' Licensing place.  I needed to renew my license before my birthday and needed to get a new picture (oh, boy!). That little errand took about an hour.  Then we came home and I stewed till it was time for my dental appointment.  Woody has worked off and on raking leaves on the side of our front yard...he did some raking in the morning and then some more prior to my appointment.  He drove me to my appointment (just couldn't go it alone! My phobia about dentists is that bad!).  We came home and it was time for supper.  We had leftover chili...think that it was better tonight!  Abigail came over a little while ago to finish up a sewing project that she has been working on because she missed her sewing time yesterday since they were on the road.  While Abigail was sewing, Woody left to walk to the prayer room at church.  Woody has been on the go today!

I guess I will go "chill out" watching some Olympic ice skating and other winter sports after my stressful day!

Warm Winter Monday

Our temperatures are rising above normal here in Middle TN...even as cold blooded as I am decided that it was too warm for a sweatshirt today...a one-clothing-layer-day!  It got up to 75 today.  And, it is supposed to be the same or warmer tomorrow.  It felt nice to be able to go outside and pet the kitties today and not be cold.  They were enjoying the warmer and dry day...though they put plenty of muddy footprints on me...so still not dry underfoot for them.  Georgia and Peaches' mother is almost home.  They should be pulling in from a trip to Arkansas in just a little while.  Woody has gone to the Armory with Graham's uniform so Graham won't be late for his Civil Air Patrol meeting...just squeaking in for that meeting!  After Woody meets up with them, he will head to the church for the Furnace Room Prayer Meeting.

Woody walked four miles this morning.  After lunch he went to the Life Care Center.  I spent some time with the kitties when he went to Life Care.  We are still having a lot of extra cats lurking around here which doesn't make me the happiest of campers.  I looked out once this afternoon and saw three BIG cats (not Esther 2 kittens) asleep on different chairs on our front porch.  These cats are not welcome here...but they don't seem to get the message!  I chased them off once this afternoon and Peaches came running to me with her tail all puffed out...she "almost" looked as big as the grown cats!  Guess she was trying to defend her territory since they were in her front yard at that time.  She did come running straight for me and not for the big cats...but she was brave enough to pass by them, though.

I made chili for our supper.  It is still simmering on the stove.  It will be ready when Woody gets home from prayer meeting...a bit later supper for us than usual...we are early eaters most days.  Guess we will eat with the Olympics tonight!

Rain, Rain, Rain!

Here's the picture of a couple of this year's Dwarf Dutch Iris that I couldn't post the other night due to computer problems.  The computer happily took the photos off my camera and loaded them onto the Passport external hard drive.  So definitely the computer is being lots more cooperative since it went in for its "spa treatment."

Woody got up and walked fairly this morning.  It was probably a good thing as mid morning the heavens opened and we had rain, at times heavy, for most of the rest of the daylight hours.  It seems to have stopped for the time being.  Woody also went to the library this morning and then stopped at a grocery store or two to get some things that we didn't have on the list yesterday...or that had cropped up that we needed after his weekly trip yesterday.  He made muffins this afternoon to take to Sunday School in the morning.  It is his boys' Sunday School Class's time to provide morning snacks.  He made banana blueberry muffins.  He had made some earlier in the week so I can vouch for the fact that they are good!

I decided that a rainy day was a good day to sew.  So I finished the sewing project that I had attempted to start yesterday.  I also looked through some machine quilting outlines that Joy might like to use when we get underway with the actual quilting.

Woody is in charge of Esther's kittens today.  He went over to check on them and found that they were in need of food...so he gave them some more...BUT the kitties were no where to be seen!  I ended up going out in the rain to look for them.  I walked all over the back yard calling "kitty, kitty, kitty" and no replying mew came back.  I know that they go under the shed that is in their backyard, but got no response from them when I neared that building.  I happened to look up and saw Peaches meowing at me from outside the gate of their fence...on the side toward our house.  She came up and ate and drank and then asked for some attention.  She didn't have the inclination to tell me where her sister was.  But I decided that perhaps they had sought shelter from the rain under our house...and sure enough when Peaches and I approached the vent where we have seen them go in before there was Georgia's little eyes and nose peeping out at me.  Peaches asked to get down from my arms and she went under the house to join her.  I decided that they were pretty smart to have sought out and found a quite dry place.  I went over just before dark and they were back curled up in the basket on their back porch...so I guess that they came out once the heavy rain stopped.  It is almost dangerous to walk across the yards they are so saturated with water.  It is actually slick underfoot since there isn't much grass on the ground at the moment...so mostly walking on dead grass and mud.  I think that they are good for the night...either in that basket or in their kitty house.

I came home and decided that I wanted/needed to make something for supper...and decided that I would make something that I had been thinking about making for a while...a recipe that Mother made occasionally but I have never seen her recipe for it...Hamburger/Macaroni Goulash.  I looked up recipes for that type of concoction on the internet and made one that seemed to remind me of the one that Mother had made.  It turned out pretty good...good enough to remind me of Mother's but a bit different but still quite tasty.  Woody said that it hit the spot.  I grated cheddar cheese on mine and he shook Parmesan cheese on his. The best part for me is that there are leftovers enough for another meal...always like to cook once and eat at least twice off a recipe!

Here Kitty, Kitty!

  Here's Woody getting acquainted with Esther's kitties.  He's holding Peaches.  That's Georgia in the basket and then in the last photo Peaches is looking at us and Georgia is getting a drink.  Woody is trying to get them matched up with their names!

Woody walked his four miles this morning fairly early to keep out of the rain.  He ran errands with a friend this morning who needed a ride.So he got a late start for our weekly grocery shopping.  While he was off running errands and grocery shopping I decided that it was a good time to wipe off the refrigerator shelves, etc....a good job done at least till the next spill!  I got started on a sewing project, but didn't get very far as Abigail needed a ride to go see if she could find some jeans.  So we headed off.  I am pleased to say that she did find two pair that fit her. She's happy too!

Our laptop got worked on and was ready to be picked up after lunch.  So I am back to using the laptop to write the blog.  Last night I posted a picture of the dwarf irises...but it wasn't the photo that I took yesterday of the iris...instead I scrolled back through photos that I had already used on the blog and found one of the dwarf iris...the only way that I can get a photo onto the blog using my iPad.  Woody was pretty happy to be able to print off his daily crossword puzzles once again!  So "our" computer geek has us back in business once again...he's trying hard to keep this one working...I still want this one to be used mainly for my sewing and photos from my current cameras and not much else so it will stick around for as long as possible.  I think that Woody may be thinking in the direction of getting a computer for himself...time will tell!

Spring is Popping Up!

Today Woody asked me to get my camera and come out to take a picture of some flowers.  Our dwarf  Iris are up and blooming...a promise of Spring being just around the corner!  I'm sure we will have lots of back and forth between cold and warm over the next weeks before Spring is officially here.  Today was one of those warmer days...pretty nice...cloudy for part of the day but the sun did peep out.

I had a usual last day of my school week.  Joseph made words with the alphabet for the first time...way to go, Joseph!!  Isaac was still into changing his money into different forms.  Today he was down to almost no change...just fives and ones in bills and a couple of quarters and a penny.  Well, after lunch, he came back over with his wallet and decided that he wanted to change one of those dollar bills into 100 pennies!  So he counted out 100 pennies, handed me a dollar and crammed all 100 pennies into his wallet...once again he has a heavy wallet!  He used the pennies from the school room so after he got out 100 pennies from the penny container, I decided that I would empty my wallet from most of the pennies and put them in the penny container for school.  We use the pennies for subtraction.  So now my wallet is a bit lighter than it was yesterday. Elijah and I had his long time today.  Joy joined us at Elijah's invitation.  They found out about bouancy using two little mandarin oranges...one peeled and one unpeeled.  They found out that the unpeeled one floated while the peeled one sank to the bottom.  Joy then wanted to add salt to the water to see if she could make the peeled one float...and with enough salt she did!  She had learned that in her science experiments that she has been doing in her science lessons this year as a 7th grader in her home schooling curriculum.  The other experiment that did was make a bubble solution that made unbreakable bubbles.  They had a great time.  Grammy did have to mop the floor after that experiment!

Woody took in the laptop this morning for the computer geek to work his magic on...once again.  The geek thinks that it is a problem with Google.  He is going to try to install a different search engine.  He thinks Google has done something in latest upgrade that makes it not compatible with our older laptop.  We will see!  Hopefully he won't have to have it long.  I need it to plan the quilting designs I will use on Joy's quilt...had hoped to do that planning this weekend.

Since it was nice out, Woody and I spent a little time getting to know the neighbor kittens so they will know us when we have to care for them when the neighbors are away on their juggling ministry trips.  Woody told Esther when he gave her the kitties that he would take care of them when Esther and her family are away.  They are very sweet kittens.  You can tell they are getting lots of love.

Woody walked four miles this afternoon.  He also did some raking today...taking advantage of the warmer temperatures.

Well, I'm off to the Olympics!

Happy Valentine's Day!

It has been pretty much a regular Wednesday.  We had school this morning.  Esther had her long time and she continued to work on her cross stitch picture.  It's growing, but a bit slower than Joy's quilt grew!  Cross stitch is a bit of a slow-go, but she is plugging along on it.  After lunch, Woody went on his walk and I headed off to work in the church library.  Donna and I got the ball rolling on the new book order.  We have had at least drizzly rain for most of the day and at times it has rained pretty hard.  Isaac has been coming over and using our wallets to exchange some of his change and ones for larger bills...and now my wallet is very heavy with change.  He's getting pretty good at counting money.  His wallet is now much lighter and he thinks that it is very funny that my wallet has gotten very heavy!  He likes those two practically new five dollar bills that I exchanged him for some of his ones and quarters.  Later this afternoon he came back and exchanged most of his pennies with me!

I made a new recipe for supper.  A chicken and avocado salad.  Woody ate his as a wrap and I just ate mine as a salad.  It was pretty good...for something a little different.  I changed the recipe around some and made it my own, but did stick with using chili powder as the spice and I rather liked that different flavor in a chicken salad...no mayo in this one.  I mashed some of the avocado to moisten the chicken and then cubed up the rest.  I also added some finely chopped celery that the recipe didn't call for.  Good for a change, but think that I like my regular chicken salad better!  Often tried and true is better than new!

I guess I am off to watch some more of of the Winter Olympics.

It Grew!

Here is Joy's sewing project that ended up growing into a throw-size quilt.  The square above was a lesson in paper piecing a log cabin quilt pattern.  By the time that she got through with it, she decided that she wanted to make a quilt that was the size of a throw.  Well...I knew that a quilt the size of a throw made up of this size square (you will see how small it is in the next pictures that I add tonight) would take forever so we decided to use some precut quilt squares that I had gotten at the last two Sew Super Saturdays in my door prize bags.  I got the purple ones two years ago and then the blue ones this year.  Joy loves blue so we started using the 5" blue squares to see how big that would get the quilt...then we decided that the purple 10" squares would work well to get it to the size that she wanted.  We took advantage of not having to cut out every square for this quilt...mainly we cut rectangular strips.  I will say that the precut squares are not entirely acurate...causing us a few problems...but we improvised where necessary!  She has pieced and pieced till the quilt top grew to the finished size.

Here she is piecing her quilt...putting the last long strip of squares on one side.  And, then the picture at the bottom is of the finished top.  She thought to stand up on the chair to be able to hold it up and still be able to see her pretty face!  She is very happy with her efforts so far.  Next I will show her how to sew the backing fabric together to make it one large rectangle to go on the back.  A quilt sandwich is in the near future. backing+batting+top=quilt sandwich Then it will be time to pin the layers together and I will get busy quilting it.  I told her that I would quilt most of it, but I do plan that she will do some of the quilting.  We will use my sewing machine as it is made for quilting...well, I guess my old machine = the one they are learning to sew on was also a quilting machine...but technology has made it much easier to quilt on the one that I use now for my sewing.  There is a wider space between the needle and the side of the machine for the quilt to go through...though it is still a bit rough to get a lot of fabric through.  A quilt the size of Joy's will be much easier to quilt than a bed-size quilt.  My machine also has a lot of built in quilting patterns that I can do using machine embroidery.  It will be fun to choose the ones that I am going to use...Joy can help with those design choices, too.

TA-DAH!!!!!!!!!

Our Tuesday school was on a bit different schedule as Joseph and Isaac needed to come together as they were going to a doctor appointment.  Then the others read the usual order and then it was time for Joy to sew, sew, sew!  Since she knew what she was doing, I sat in the guest room/kid's sewing room and worked on getting a book order ready for us to work on during our library time tomorrow.  I was right there to answer any questions that Joy might have, but kept our of her hair so she could be more on her own with her sewing...and, accomplished something that I needed to do...a bit of multitasking!  

Shortly after school was over, Woody and I headed out for an early Valentine treat...we headed to Dairy Queen for their featured Valentine Blizzard: Dipped Chocolate Strawberry with Ghiradelli.  Yum!  It was a backwards lunch for me...dessert and then some soup to warm me up!  

Woody left a few minutes ago to walk to the Prayer Room at church.  I am blogging early so I can head down to watch the Olympics.  Tonight goes back to skating--pairs, I think.  Skating is my favorite part of the Winter Olympics.

Cold Monday!

Seems like it has just stayed cold all day.  Brrrrrrrrr! I don't think that it ever got out of the 30's today.  Monday rolled around again the start of another school week...I still say that the days are just going by all too fast.  We followed our usual Monday schedule for school.  Abigail had her long time today and worked some more on her next quilted pencil holder mug cover.  I think that she will probably get it finished her next sewing session.  Isaac came in with news of another tooth lost...that makes six!  I continue to call him "the toothless wonder."  Some have grown back in but he still has lots of big gaps in his grin.  He decided that he would read to me downstairs like the big kids do.  We all sit in the glider love seat in the living room...it's comfy and holds two so a good place to read!  He said that he was going to leave his book downstairs so he could read there again tomorrow...like the big kids...I told him that I guess that made him a "big kid!"  I made chicken noodle soup after school was finished...so we ate lunch a little late. Yesterday I stewed a chicken so I had "liquid gold" (chicken broth) once again.  I froze eight cups in two cup portions and then used what was left over in our soup.  Later in the afternoon I deboned chicken thighs...froze most of them wrapped individually, but kept out several to cook for us.  I coated them with Panko crumbs and lots of spices and cooked them in the air fryer rather than the oven.  They came out crispy (perhaps not quite as crispy as when cooked in the oven) but quite good and the cooking time is less.  I did use a meat thermometer to check for when they were done.  It took a bit longer than the air fryer recipes said...but still faster than in the oven.

Woody went to Life Care this morning, had Bible study with Jeff, handed out more Valentines, visited with Eric, and then visited with several that asked him to come back when he gave them their Valentines on Saturday.  This afternoon we watched (I listened from the kitchen) some more of the Olympics.  That is where I will be heading when I publish this.  Woody has gone to The Furnace Room prayer meeting at church.  I'm sure that he will be joining me in watching Olympics when he gets home.  He has been nice and let me sit in "his" recliner when I am downstairs watching "his" TV.  It is nice to watch the Olympics on the new TV that Nathan and family gifted us with...nice to get the complete picture on the screen...our old one always cut off part of the screen since it wasn't an HD TV.  Well, off to do a little skiing...or luging...or whatever NBC chooses to share with us for the Olympics! Oh, almost forgot...Woody did go for a cold walk this afternoon.  He walked his usual four-miles.

Rainy Saturday

We have had rain, rain, rain...and then...some more rain today.  It has been too rainy to go out and check the rain gauge to see how much we have gotten!  There are huge puddles all over the yard...very soggy underfoot.

Woody made his weekly trip to the public library this morning and then a little later went to the Life Care Center to attempt to hand out Valentines to all the residents...112.  He asked the neighbor grandchildren to make Valentine cards for all 112 and they DID!  He got a lot handed out today and will attempt to deliver the rest when he goes on Monday.  He has five of the residents that he met today wanting him to come back to visit with them because they have no family in the area.

I have had a busy day...I did a lot of what I had planned to do yesterday and then added some more onto that.  I vacuumed and dusted our room.  And then I decided that I wanted to clean out the drawers in the nightstand.  I have thrown some stuff away and managed to consolidate the rest into two drawers leaving me with one drawer to put my cameras in...that gets them off the top of the nightstand...looks better and is probably better for them to not be out in the open gathering dust.

The internet is acting a bit crazy today...maybe due to the wet conditions?  So I won't make this very long in case I lose it all when I go to post it!  I'm off to watch the Olympics. Well, as of 7:09pm...it won't post.  I will come back in a while and attempt to post it again.  I'm just hoping that it has been saved!

Friday Summarized!

Friday is upon us again...as a matter of fact, it is close to being behind us...my how the days fly by.  I had big plans for today...not sure what happened to the plans, but I guess I did other things than what I had planned.  I started to say that it was a usual school day...but wait...today is my day off from school.  Isaac came over mid morning and stayed till lunch...he played and we even read another story out of his new reader.  Woody did our Friday grocery shopping at three stores: Aldis, WalMart, and Kroger.  Isaac was over here when he got home so Isaac helped me put the groceries away...he does my "low down jobs" = putting away the canned goods on the low shelves.  That really is a big help!  Woody went for his 4-mile walk after lunch.  Abigail came over to pick out fabric for her next mug pencil holder cover.  We had to dig through a lot of scraps before she found just what she wanted to use.  She got the pieces cut out and the fleece fused onto one of the pieces.  So she is set to start the sewing the next time that she comes over.  She's going to attempt this one with as little of my help as possible!  Elijah popped in to ask me to do something but I told him that his oldest sister had asked for my presence first!!!!  Not long after that Isaac and Joy showed up. They occupied their time in the school room using the Osmo interactive app for my iPad.  At some point I realized that we didn't have anything for supper...leftovers are all gone!  So I made one of our favorite pasta sauces. We ate just a bit later than usual since I got a rather late start.  I am attempting to blog early so I can go watch the opening ceremonies of the Olympics.

Another Thursday

Another Thursday and another week of school with the grandchildren is behind me.  The weeks go by so fast!  Today we had our usual Thursday schedule.  Elijah did science experiments during his long time...he made silly putty and went fishing for ice cubes using string and salt.  He had fun!

Woody accomplished a major goal today...I think that it was a goal for both of us.  ALL the Christmas boxes are back in the Christmas closet!  Woo!  Hoo!  This afternoon I vacuumed the hall and also managed to push the vacuum through a couple more rooms upstairs.  I hope to finish the vacuuming upstairs tomorrow.  Woody did tell me not to open the Christmas closet doors...if I do that I am responsible for putting back in what falls out!  At the moment "out of sight is out of mind!"  I hope that I don't find anything else that needs to go in the closet.  The other day I found something else Christmas that I had overlooked while undecorating.  Wonder if I will find something else!

After lunch, Woody headed off for his walk.  He went back to his urologist for a follow-up.  I began to get a bit concerned when he hadn't gotten home and it was after five!  But he made it back home around 5:30.  He was one of the last patients to be seen today.  Looks like there will be another doctor referral in his near future.

Tonight we ate leftovers again, but this time I added a baked potato that I cooked in the air fryer...cooked very well in that appliance.

Well, Woody just came to tell me that the men's short program in skating was about to start...so guess I will head downstairs to watch a bit of Winter Olympics.  I am so glad that we now get NBC.  For years we weren't able to watch much of the Olympics because NBC's signal didn't come in here.  Glad that this year we will be able to watch at least some of the Olympics.

A Brrrrrrrrry Wednesday!

 Here's Joseph working with the movable alphabet and the sandpaper sounds.  I remembered to take a camera into the school room today.

We had a usual schedule for school this morning.  Joseph came for his preschool time, then Isaac came for his kindergarten time, and then Elijah, Abigail, and Joy came to read with me.  Esther had her long time.  She cross stitched for a while and then we went downstairs and read some more in her book and finished it! She and Joy have both read all three books in the Princess Academy Series.

After lunch I went to the church to work in the library.  There wasn't a lot to do today.  Donna and I did regular maintenance = checked books in and out and then shelved the ones that had come back and then we straightened the shelves.  When I got home Woody was gone on his daily four-mile walk.  I got Joy's

 top and headed to the quilt store to find the perfect fabrics for the back and the binding and got quilting thread.  I've got the pieces of fabric ready to be washed so they will be ready when she has her next sewing time.

Woody was back home from his walk when I got home.  We had leftovers from last night's meal for our supper this evening...an easy fix for me!

We had rain during the night and then some more this morning. After the rain passed through, we were left with nippy temperatures...even more nippy due to the wind.  I was glad to get back home and settle in for the rest of the afternoon and now evening. Last night I pulled out a sampler to work on...I was in the mood to do a little needlework.  I think that I will go work some more on it this evening.  Woody is watching TV and reading.  We're looking forward to the start of the Winter Olympics.

A Spot of Tea, Anyone?

Here's the tea cozy that I made for my teapot.  As I mentioned last night, I am really impressed with how well it keeps the tea hot for a rather lengthy amount of time.  It has one layer of a special insulating batting inside it as well as a regular layer of batting.  The designs that are on the front and back are free machine embroidery designs that I got off the internet some years back and finally found the perfect item to stitch them on.  The redwork designs just said (to me) that they needed to be stitched on flour sack dish towels...so used the dish towel to make the outside of the cozy.

I had a usual Tuesday of school.  Joseph had a red letter day in school today.  He started the Movable Alphabet.  He got to start the movable alphabet because he knows all the sounds that the letters make.  For the moment he is finding out where the letters are in the box.  Once he is familiar with the location of the letters, we will start making three-letter phonetic words.  I will sound out the word...he will find the sounds that are in that word and put them out on the floor and then after he has made a line of words then we go back and he will sound them out.  He will do this till he can "hear" the words that he is saying when he blends the letters together. It isn't an overnight ah ha moment in reading...but a gradual process.  But it is pretty exciting to see the light bulb come on when they realize that they are reading. It's an interesting learning process...quite a few in our family have learned to read with the Movable Alphabet: Melany and Nathan when they went to the local Montessori school many moons ago...and,  in more recent years: Graham, Abigail, Joy, Esther, Elijah, Isaac...and now Joseph.  This is one of quite a few actual Montessori items/equipment that we have in our school room here at the house.  I have taught hundreds of children to read using the sand paper sounds and then the movable alphabet as the spring board into reading.  I really do wonder how many children I have taught to read!  When I was in second grade (REALLY many moons ago!) I decided that I wanted to be a teacher so I could teach children how to read...guess that dream came true!

Joy worked some more on piecing her quilt top together.  She is just about finished.  The top should be together after one more sewing session.  It is looking great!  Now to find just the perfect fabric/s for the back and the binding on the quilt.  We've got to get the fabric bought so they can be washed and pressed before her next sewing time next week.  That way we can get the top sandwiched with the batting and backing and get it pinned together so we can get started on quilting it.  I will do most of the quilting using my machine.  I do plan to let her do some of the quilting so she can get an idea of how it is done. I'm looking forward to the quilting...that's a part of quilting that I enjoy.

Woody went for his walk this morning while I was reading with the children.  He included a stop at a close-by grocery store to pick up a couple of things that I needed to try out a new recipe for tonight's meal.  He also did some work in one of the gardens today...pulling up dry stuff, etc.  He is at the prayer room at church right now.  He drove this evening since he had walked earlier today.  He knew that it might be raining this evening so chose to walk while it was dry.  So far we haven't seen the predicted rain.

Pretty much as soon as lunch was over, I got busy on tonight's supper.  I was cooking a pot roast so needed to get it in the oven so it would have plenty of time to cook.  I found a new recipe for pot roast last night and decided to try it: Asian-Style Pot Roast.  It was really good. We also had rice to go with the sauce that the meat made while cooking and had carrots cooked with the roast and I also stir-fried some onions and yellow and orange bell peppers.  Everything was very tasty.  A good change of pace and it got something else out of the freezer (the roast).

Monday Mumblings

Pretty much a usual Monday...school this morning.  Abigail had her long time and finished another mug cover/pencil holder.  This afternoon I did some general sewing related things...but no sewing...looking up things and watching a couple of sewing videos.  I did finish my tea cozy yesterday.  I'm really pleased with it.  It really keeps the tea warm in my teapot for quite a lengthy period of time...nice to bring up a pot of tea in the afternoon and still have it nice and warm several hours later!  I think that I will enjoy this...especially in the evenings.

Woody went to Life Care this morning.  He had Bible study with Jeff and then visited with Eric and a couple of other members of our church.  Later in the day he took a walk...back to his urologists to give him the lab reports and the CT reports that I printed out.  That way the doctor will have them prior to Woody's next appointment.  Woody is at The Furnace Room prayer meeting at church this evening.

First February Saturday

Back to posting pictures since I am blogging from our house tonight...decided that I would revisit the barn photos that I took in early December.

We have had a fairly quiet Saturday. Not much happening.  I pretty much stayed in all day and did do some sewing.  I'm making a tea cozy for me...made a couple for Christmas gifts and decided that I wanted one too. Woody made cornbread to go with our lunch today. He waited for it to get to a comfortable temperature and then walked to the public library this afternoon for his daily walk.  He has read, watched games, worked puzzles, etc. Guess the blog will be short and sweet since I don't have a lot to report about today!

Ground Hog's Day 2018

Well, the ground hog in our area saw his shadow...six more weeks of winter!  About what we would have had anyway!  I found out tonight that Huntsville depends on a possum to predict winter's end.  Guess it is a southern thing!

I am next door with some of our grandchildren.  We have had a lot of roaring tonight!  Rather a loud evening of "battling."  Woody and I ate supper over here again tonight.

Woody did our grocery shopping this morning. Then later in the morning he took a friend over to McMinville to a doctor appointment.  So he has been on the go today.  I'm not sure about whether he took a walk or not.  I have been back and forth between the two houses today.

How much longer till Spring where you live?

Hello, February!

No picture tonight.  I am next door sitting with grandchildren...so I won't take the time to select a picture tonight.  We had our regular day of school for Thursday...well...sort of.  In the end Joy had her long time as Elijah and Esther were heading off with their mom and dad.  Joy worked some more on her quilt.  She is getting close to finishing the piecing of the quilt top.  Then we will have to select a backing fabric and then make a quilt sandwich so I can quilt it on my sewing machine. She might have a quilt before winter's end. Time will tell! Woody walked this morning while I was having school with the children.  He wanted to beat the rain.  It has rained part of the afternoon...and now it is SNOWING!  The kids are all excited seeing the flakes come down in the night sky...hoping for snow on the ground when they wake up in the morning!

Isaac spent some time over here this afternoon.  He was looking for a paying job.  He is trying to save his money so he can buy some technology item.  He vacuumed the stairs for me.  He was going to sweep the front walkway for Goosey (Woody) but it started to rain so he will do that on a dry day.  Abigail cooked supper tonight and Goosey and I ate over there.  Everyone is settling in for a quiet evening.  The two youngest are heading up to bed...Joy is getting them to brush their teeth and then will get them into bed.  I read them bedtime stories and then we had a bedtime snack that Abigail and Joy made.  Woody is home watching TV, reading, working puzzles, etc. He's really having a peaceful evening with even me around!