A Brrrrrrrrrrrrry Spooky Night!

Feels like the cold front came through.  We are under our first freeze warning.  It is supposed to get down into the upper 20's tonight.  Little spooks had to dress warmly tonight.  We only had two come to our door.  I was ready to come upstairs and Woody is all wrapped up in a fleece throw so I knew that he couldn't get to the door easily so I turned off the porch light.  Not even our grandchildren made their way next door to trick or treat.  They were at our church for a Fall Fest that we had in conjunction with the downtown merchants of  Tullahoma.  The older grands were helping and the younger ones were running around having a good time and probably collecting candy!

School got off to a slow start as it was raining quite hard, but Joseph managed to wade over and have some school time.  The rest of them got all of their time.  It was Isaac's long time today.  We continued with simple machines.  He is working with pulleys and made a block and tackle.  We decided to have Nathan or Graham help us get the "ropes" right on the pulleys...we got it to work but we're not sure we had the ropes on right because they came off awfully easily.  I think that we need a mechanical engineer or a former K'nexpert!  My mind can't always wrap itself around the diagrams for these models!  I am not an engineer...just introduce the concepts!

Woody ran a couple of errands to shorten tomorrow's errands.  He went to the Credit Union and WalMart.  He will tackle Kroger's tomorrow.  While he was running errands, I got underway with making some homemade bread for the meal that my friend and I are taking tomorrow.  While I was doing that Isaac and Joseph came over to stay while the rest of their family went to set up for the Fall Fest at church.  Their daddy came and got them and took them home to dress warmly so they could go have some Fall fun.  Nathan just came over and said that it snowed and sleeved for about a half hour during the Fest!  Wonder if folk thought that it was Christmas instead of Halloween!

I'm not sure that I'm ready for this cold weather...we have gone from one extreme to another this month...the first of the month it was in the 90’s and now as we leave the month it is in the 30's and November will begin in the 20's!

Oh, and I just had two more trick or treaters = Nathan and Isaac.  They came trick or treating for Isaac's schoolwork folder that he had left here, but I sent them home with some of our treats = balloons!

Fall Trip to Vanderbilt

We saw absolutely no color on the way to Vanderbilt this morning as the entire hour and forty-five minutes was driven in the dark.  We left the house a little before 5am...dark and early!  We arrived at the hospital around 6:40 for an appointment that we were supposed to be there by 7:10.  We used valet parking a bit differently this time trying to eliminate Woody having to navigate the long

hallway.  We first went to the hospital valet parking as the radiology department is right just a walk through the hospital waiting room.  He got registered for his scan and was told to head back to the scan waiting room.  He hadn't even gotten seated in that waiting room when they came to get him for his scan.  This is a quick scan since Woody can't have dye.  The attendant who walked him to the 

scan room came and got me when the scan was over so Woody wouldn't have to walk back to get me.  We headed out at the time we were supposed to have gotten there for the scan.  Clock work!  We reclaimed our car from valet parking and headed on around the block to the valet parking for the cancer clinic.  Woody signed in there and was shortly called to the registration desk.  The registration 

person asked the girl at the lab desk if Woody could go on in to the lab and they said, yes.  Again, saving him steps back to where we were seated in the waiting room.  And, once again, he was walking out of the lab about the time that he was supposed to be checking in for labs!  More clock work!  We headed across the hall and sat down in the big outer waiting room to wait to be called back to see Dr. Wyman.  At this point we were more than an hour early to see  the doctor so figured that this would be the point that we would wait.  We were wrong!  Once again they called him back immediately.  We saw Dr. Wyman when we were walking to the exam room so knew that he was on the premises already—a good sign!  He came in to see Woody almost immediately.  Come to find out the patients he was supposed to be seeing right then still weren't there so we helped by being early.  

Getting in so quickly meant that most results weren't back, though, the labs were back.  The main thing that Dr. Wyman mentioned were that his kidney function number was slightly higher than when infectious disease did labs some weeks back—a good thing.  He also mentioned that Woody as more anemic than he had been for a while.  Woody was due to have his anemia shot and B-12 shots today 

but we had to reschedule die to the Vanderbilt appointments that already existed.  He will go for those next week.  The anemia explains why it wears Woody out to walk very far with his walker.  He was so glad that he didn't have to walk the long hall today.  He said that he thought that he would have been late for his appointments if he had to do all that walking.  Valet parking really helped today.  We had never parked at two valet parking areas before.  But that worked very well.

Just a while ago, Dr. Wyman called with the scan results.  He said that the lymph nodes in the one place on his right leg were still enlarged, but that they think, as we do, that it has to do with his leg—both the infection that he had in his leg and that is still healing/having trouble with that leg.  Dr. 

Wyman felt that it would be okay to wait six months for the next scans.  That was what we were hoping for—less trips to Vanderbilt!

We were home by a little before 11am—a very short Vanderbilt day—but still quite a few hours—six 

hours either on the road or at appointments at Vanderbilt.  I think that this time there was more time spent on the road than at Vandy—Vandy was very efficient today for which we are thankful!

The prettiest leaves that we saw today were when we sat waiting for them to bring our car to us after all his appointments were over.  The bottom picture shows a pretty maple that we could see from where we sat waiting.  I snapped the top picture from the car window as we were leaving the Vanderbilt medical campus—the wall identifies where we had been and it shows that there is a little color around.  I did get a few more pretty pictures as we drove the back road route after we got to Murfreesboro.  We did have rain on the way home...one of the reasons that we got off the interstate.

Tuesday

Today was haircut day for me...thus tonight's photo...shooting across the backyard of the house where I go to get my hair cut...definitely fall colors are peeping out.  I still don't think that it is going to be as showy of a Fall as we sometimes have...but there is still beautiful color.  I'm hoping that we will see some color tomorrow on our trip to Vanderbilt.  The only problem is that the appointment is so early that we will traveling for the first part in the dark...hoping that it will be dry, but rain is predicted.  I'm not sure how we got such an early appointment...hope that we can make it despite the rush hour traffic from Murfreesboro on.

I had school today but only part of it.  Elijah missed his long time because they went to have lunch with friends.  Woody heded out to run a couple of errands—pick up some of his medicine at the pharmacy and get gas in the car so we could get to Vanderbilt!  On my home from my haircut I stopped at the library to return the book that I finished last night and found a couple more.

Our Sunday School teacher had knee replacement surgery this morning.  This evening I have been planning a meal with a friend to take to her and her husband later in the week when she gets home from the hospital.  I need to gather up Sunday School literature to take with me tomorrow so I can study the lesson.  I think that I will probably be subbing for quite a few weeks!

I guess I had better go put things in the bag that I will take with me tomorrow to keep me occupied as we wait in one waiting room or another and then go finish in the kitchen.  I guess we need to get to sleep earlier tonight than usual since we need to get up dark and early.  Tomorrow's appointments are for his three-month check in with his melanoma doctor, have a CT scan, and labs...just routine.  Hoping that these check-ins can be moved a bit farther apart.  Just before his surgery last January these appointments were supposed to be moved to a year apart and then after surgery scans picked up on lymph nodes affected by surgery...but they moved them closer together again to be sure...hope that they get moved to at least 6-months apart!

Sunshine after a Rainy Weekend

There's starting to be some color.  This tulip poplar (TN state tree) is right outside our bedroom window and as the sun hit it late this afternoon, it's golden colors definitely shone through.  The day started out foggy...due to all the moisture in the air after all the rain that we got over the weekend.  By mid morning the sun had broken through and it has been a very blue sky fall day.

I had school today on a normal Monday schedule.  This is Esther's long time.  She painted a couple of pictures.  It is the start of secret projects and Esther decided that at least one of her paintings was going to be a Christmas present.  While she painted, I started putting things away from my Saturday sewing event.  I just hadn't felt like doing that yesterday.  Yesterday I adapted one of our soup recipes so Woody can have it—Shanghai Pork Stew.  It came out pretty good and as he says it is filling.  I had planned to make some potato soup for me today, but our celery disappeared from the refrigerator...I guess the celery snitch didn't realize that I had plans for those stalks of celery.  I guess I will put my soup on hold till we get some more.

While I was putting things away in the sewing room, I decided to make one of the little sewing projects that we got at Sew Super Saturday—a mug rug (coaster) that is made out of 5 five-inch squares.  It turned out cute.  I still have two other quick projects...but I should be working on Christmas rather than these!  These could be Christmas, but so far I haven't thought about who they could be for...or who might want them!

Woody went to the Monday Night Furnace Room Prayer Meeting after supper.  He has just returned from it so I guess we are settling in for another quiet evening.  Not much happening...per usual!  I'm trying to finish a book.  Woody finished one earlier and has already started another one.  He also has the TV going so he is probably multi-tasking.

Yesterday I had an enjoyable evening talking with two sewing friends who I rarely see these days.  The first friend just lives in the next town over and she usually attends Sew Super Saturday, but didn't this year. I private messaged her on Facebook to tell I had missed seeing her and we ended up
"talking" quite a long time.  When we finished, I decided that I would call my friend Connie who lives in Alabama now.  She first invited me to Sew Super Saturday years ago.  I called her to let her know what all we did this Sew Super Saturday and to catch up with her.  We had a nice long talk too. So it turned into a "sewing chat" evening!  It was fun to catch up with both of them.

A Sewing Happening

Here is another carved pumpkin from next door.  Esther carved this one using a pattern in the carving set.

I had a very good sewing day.  I managed to complete the six Christmas items that I took to work on. I had all six completed except for trimming three of them and did that after I got home.  There were quite a few little projects that they had us do during the day so I didn't have quite as much "me sewing" time.  Lots of sewing, visiting, eating, and laughing went on!  It was fun, but I will admit that I came home tired.

Woody has fended for himself today and definitely survived!  He went to the library...I know because he said that he was going and I see new books on the stairs for Isaac and Joseph to read.  I'm sure that he worked his crossword puzzles and know that he has watched college football on TV because he has watched some since I have been home.

We have really gotten quite a bit of rain over the last two days.  It seemed so strange yesterday to have it rain almost the entire day.  It quit sometime during the night and at least didn't  rain as I got myself to and from Sew Super Saturday.  It was raining just a little as I pulled into our driveway when I returned from the event. I was rather damp by the time I got all my sewing things back in the house.  It has also been quite windy all day today.  We had more rain come through a little while ago.  I think that our pattern of no rain has been broken!

I had a surprise on the front porch when I got home—the blinds for the sun porch had been delivered...glad that it hadn't rained much once they were left on the front porch as they barely fit without sticking off the porch some.  I managed to drag the box inside.  I guess Nathan has another install job when he can find time.

A Day for Gathering

The neighbors (Nathan and Kathy and children) have done a bit of pumpkin carving with a carving kit that came in that box from Arizona.  This is the one that Nathan and Isaac carved.  Isaac told me that Nathan got a pattern from the Internet and used it to carve this one.

I have spent a good part of the day gathering up things that I will need tomorrow at Sew Super Saturday.  I am packing up our laundry basket with things to sew and notions that I will need to make these items.  My plans are to have some more Christmas sewing completed when I head home late tomorrow afternoon.  I have put together several "kits" that have all needed items in them to complete an item.  I have a sewing machine all packed up and ready to go.  This time I am taking my older machine that I use to teach the children how to sew.  I am taking that one instead of my newer one for a couple of reasons.  First it is lighter to carry and since Woody is using his walker most of the time these days it wouldn't be easy for him to lug the machine out to the car and then into the church where the event is held.  The other reason is that the place that the plug is inserted on my newer machine has a problem and I try to unplug it at the machine as little as possible.  I hope that I can get used to sewing on the old one again!  The newer one is a much smoother running machine, but the old one should be sufficient for the sewing tasks that I have planned for tomorrow.

Woody headed out to do our weekly grocery shopping fairly early.  The early hour let hm pretty much miss the hard, steady rain that came later.  It was just misting a little when he went so he kept pretty dry.  The rains set in during the time that he was out taking his friend on errands.  He mainly stays in the car and just drives from place for those errands.  He did get out at one of the grocery stores and get a couple more things that were on our list.  Other than that he probably stayed dry until he had to walk from the car to the house.  He has spent the time since coming back in his recliner in the family room either reading or watching TV.  Right now he is watching his Friday night news programs.

Well, I'm off to finish gathering sewing things for tomorrow.  I need to sit and think through all that I "might" need to do the sewing tasks that I want to do tomorrow.  I won't be able to just turn around and get something out of a cabinet or off a shelf in my sewing room.  It is amazing how many items one uses to complete just the simplest of sewing tasks—scissors (several kinds), pins, rulers, thread (many colors), needles (both machine and hand)...and the list goes on!  Speaking of lists...I haven't made one this year...I usually start a list early in the week and keep adding to it as I think of things that I will need.  I think that maybe I still have a list on my iPad that I guess I will check to see if I have forgotten anything too important.  I'm looking forward to a day totally dedicated to sewing, plus it will be fun to spend time with sewing friends that I don't see often...plus there is always good food and lots of laughter and it is fun to see what others are making.  They are all quilters and I don't consider myself a quilter as I only dabble in quilting once in a while, but it is good to see the beautiful things that they have made or are making.  Off to see if I can find last year's list of items to take!

Yikes! Spiders and Webs!

This new spider web showed up in the garden between Nathan and Kathy's house and ours...pretty thick and look at the size of those two spiders!  Plots and webs must be thickening as Halloween approaches!  I think that one of my blog readers may have been partially responsible for this web, though she lives about 1800 miles away!  (Cheryl, the children are enjoying their package!)

I had school today.  We did our usual reading and working on math and/or spelling.  Isaac did several things during his long time.  He did a math game on my iPad with the Osmo app, he played a couple of games of dominos, and then began his second K'nex model using pulleys in his simple machines lesson.  The other day he made a flag pole using pulleys and today stared making a sailboat.  He had it all finished except for the pulley rigging and he took it home to have a sibling or two help him finish it.

Woody has spent some time outside today.  He attempted to blow leaves and acorns off our front walkway.  That job ended up being what I call a "Tom Sawyer job" as he didn't have to work at it very long till Nathan took over and Woody just supervised from the front porch.  He also did some grass seed planting hoping to have tomorrow's rains help get the seed started.  He also disappeared on me this afternoon and when he returned he had gotten some pine straw to put over the grass seed to keep it from washing away in tomorrow and Saturday's rains.

I have been trying to get a couple more Christmas items embroidered so I can take them with me on Saturday for the all-day sewing event.  So I have spent a good part of the afternoon in the sewing room.  Now tomorrow I'll get sewing notions together that I need to take with me on Saturday. Hopefully I will be able to complete a few Christmas items.  I decided that I needed to do the embroidery today in case tomorrow there are storms accompanying our rain.  I don't run my machines when it is storming.  I think that we are pretty much supposed to just have rain...lots of rain.

Nathan shared some turkey with us that I decided to turn into something that my mother used to make—creamed turkey on toast.  Of course, I had to make ours minus any dairy products...so used homemade chicken broth instead of milk.  It was quite tasty for a change of pace...guess it was our first taste of Thanksgiving...creamed turkey was usually one of the last tastes of Thanksgiving.  So it was a bit different having it before roasting our Thanksgiving turkey!

Fall Wednesday

It seemed that there was a bit of a hint of fall color in the trees as I drove to the church this afternoon...maybe we will get some fall color after all...the pretty fall colors just seem much later showing up this year.

I spent the morning in the kitchen with a large amount of sweet red and yellow peppers.  I roasted the larger ones and the pimentos and chopped and sliced the smaller ones.  I put the slices and chopped pieces in the freezer.  I still have to decide if I will freeze the roasted ones.  I know that it will work as I have frozen roasted pimentos before.  I just didn't have time to more than peel and deseed them before it was time to go to church to work in the library.

Today Donna, Fran, and I worked on processing some new books.  We managed to get all done that needed to be done and got them all ready to be checked out.  We had a very productive work time.

Woody left around 10am to take his friend to the doctor in McMinnville.  He was still gone when I left to go to the church at 1pm.  He was home when I got home around 3pm.  He said that he got home somewhere around 2pm.

I was talking with a friend about Saturday's sewing day and I heard a beeping sound on my landline phone...I guess when we got new phone service, we also got call waiting.  I don't know how to get to such calls (and didn't even try), but after I finished talking with my friend, I checked missed calls and saw that I missed a call from Vanderbilt.  I'm sure that it was a reminder about Woody's appointments next week.  But I am surprised to find out that we have call waiting.  I have enjoyed caller ID in seeing if the call is from someone I know or if it is another robo call!  We only have one phone that has this capability and it is hidden in the sewing room so I have to run for that phone when I am upstairs, if I want to ID the caller...and, our phone only rings 4 times before it the answering machine answers...so I have to run fast!  I always tell my friends that be sure to leave a message as I may be on my way to the phone and will get there before they hang up!  We have three phones and only the wall phone in the kitchen is easily accessible.  I guess we have four if you count the cell phone, but that one is usually hidden wherever I used it last!  And, I rarely use my cell phone...just for long distance (and, with new phone service I can use our other phones for long distance...but don't since I don't have the numbers programmed in like I do on the cell phone) and I do text with a few of my family and friends.  We are still holdouts for a smart phone...just have an old fashioned slide phone and I don't carry it with me except when we go out of town...most of the time it is on the end table next to my bed plugged in!

A Day Late With Last Night's Photo

Here's the photo that I wanted to post yesterday to represent our rainy day...just a day late...no rain today!  But we did get more yesterday evening after I blogged.

Woody visited one of his Deacon family members today and then stayed close to home the rest of the day.  I stayed at home all day...my only venture out was to walk to the compost pile and take the garbage can out to the road for tomorrow's pick up.  I had a usual Tuesdat school day.  Elijah came over with his science school book and wanted to do some extra activities in his lesson about volcanos.  We looked up on Google Earth to see where the volcanoes were located that were on his list.  We also checked out to see how many volcanoes there are in the Philippines...good to learn about places they have traveled to already and ones that are upcoming trips.  He checked out some volcanoes in Iceland remembering about being on the edge of one of them and looking down in on green grass!  We printed pictures of the volcanos that he is going to find some facts about.  He is planning to make a book.  We made a start today.

At the moment we have four of the neighbor seven grandchildren over here.  The other three and their parents are at a worship service at the Baptist Collegiate Ministries Center at Motlow College.  It was funny when Esther went looking for a snack...not much to snack on around here, since most snack items are too salty to have around here.  But she did find a few saltines and some peanut butter that all four ended up snacking on...until saltines ran out...there weren't many!  But guess it met their snacking need!  I told them that it was good thing that I hadn't already dust mopped the floor...or I might be upset with all the crumbs!  At least they were dry crumbs and not sticky so an east sweep up after they finished.  Now some are creating with K'nex and others are playing on screens.  Woody is in his spot in the family room and I have retreated to my recliner upstairs...one has flopped down on the floor with me and the rest are in the living room downstairs...well dispersed!  I'm not sure how long the worship services go on...didn't think to ask that!

I got an email today saying that our back ordered shades for the sun porch had been shipped and should be here the first of next week.  We look forward to those as they will block both heat and cold...hopefully getting here and installed by Nathan before it gets very cold here in Middle Tennessee.

Rainy Tennessee Day

I had another photo picked out and I can't get our laptop to cooperate to send it to my iPad..so there is more than one way to accomplish a task...usually!  This time last went to Facebook and found one of my photos that I had posted another year in the Fall.  So this one will have to do.  So far there just isn't much color around here.  I'm wondering if our extreme dryness is going to keep us from seeing much color this year...or if the color is still coming?

This is the first time in a long time that we have had a really good rain that lasted for several hours.  It was hard for a while and then was just a gentle rain for the rest of the time.  We really need whatever rain we can get.

Woody has made a few phone calls checking on his Deacon families.  Most of the rest of the day he spent doing his daily crossword puzzles, watching some TV, and reading.  This evening he did head out in a light rain to go to the Monday Night Furnace Room Prayer Meeting.  He has just returned from that.

I had school this morning.  Joseph still wasn't feeling the best so Isaac took up Joseph's time and worked on his school work that he usually does at home along with working on his spelling with me and doing some reading outloud.  Joseph, Isaac, and Esther were all feeling a little puny yesterday and stayed home with me while the rest of their family headed off in the afternoon for a juggling gig at a Fall Festival at a church in Alabama.  This is a busy time of year for the Dazzling Dorrells.  They are much in demand at Fall Festivals in various towns in various states.  The three kids and I had a pretty quiet time yesterday afternoon and evening.  Isaac and Esther were feeling better this morning. And, Joseph got to feeling better as the morning wore on.  Esther had her long time wih me.  She did some painting with her water color pencils and then we did a color experiment.  It used milk, food coloring, and dish washing soap.  It made very pretty swirls of color in the milk.  She ended up taking  coffee filters and dipping them in the color swirls and transferring the colors to the paper.  I think that she may use these colored papers in another artwork project...we'll see where her imagination takes her!  The papers have dried and I have stacked them up for her next art time over here.

I did a little in the kitchen this afternoon...needed to cook more rice for the chicken gumbo and also needed to make Woody some more red pepper sauce.  I made a large batch and put some in the refrigerator to use now and froze some more for a future time when he runs out.  I got that mess cleaned up and didn't make a big mess for supper as we had chicken gumbo for supper.  The kitchen is all cleaned up and "put to bed" for today...as long as Woody doesn't make any more messes in there tonight!  I came upstairs and read and rested for a while.  A friend just called and we made plans for Saturday.  This Saturday is the yearly "Sew Super Saturday" that a local quilt guild has each year and I am invited to go as a guest once again!  I look forward to it each year.  Now to get things gathered together to sew on for Saturday...have lots of gathering of supplies and possible projects to do.  That's one of the reasons that I have been trying to get Christmas ornaments machine embroidered so I can do the machine sewing to finish them at this event.  I have several ready to go so that is good.  I also have a little wall hanging that I want to do for the kitchen so might work on that...

A This-And-That Day

We have both just done a little of this and a little of that today.  We've stayed at home except for trips to the mailbox and the trash can...nothing too exciting...like normal!  Woody did his crossword puzzles that he does daily.  He has read and watched some college football on TV.  I roasted a chicken as I got a Kroger bargain of the day yesterday...got it for 49¢ a pound because the sell-by date happened to be yesterday,  the day I was shopping, so I knew that I needed to go on and cook it.  Woody enjoyed a chicken and roasted red pepper with red pepper sauce pita sandwich for lunch.  Elijah came over and stuck his head in the kitchen door and asked what I was cooking.  When I told him, he wanted to know if I was already cooking Thanksgiving dinner!  I told him that we would need something a little larger than what I was cooking for everyone on Thanksgiving!  I'm sure that it smelled a bit like Thanksgiving since I roasted the chicken.

Speaking of Thanksgiving, that is something that got settled today.  We had to decide when we were going to have it this year and it looks like we are going to have it on "the real Thanksgiving" day.  In the years of late, we have usually had it on the Saturday after.   Woody was hoping that we could have it on Thanksgiving Thursday this year.  Melany said that their four-day weekend was open and Kathy and Nathan could do it any day but Friday.  So Woody will get his wish...as long as we continue with this plan!  We have already begun deciding what we will serve.  Normally we have a set menu for Thanksgiving, but due to Woody's restrictive diet we may make a few changes this year in the veggie and pie department. I'm looking forward to cooking Thanksgiving in my new kitchen!  I know last year as I was cooking Thanksgiving dinner, I kept thinking that it would be the last time cooking in that kitchen and that in 2019 I would be preparing our family turkey dinner in new surroundings.  Looks like that thought was correct...so glad that the renovation is behind us!

Melany has said that she wants to do Christmas at their new house and that sounds like fun to me!  I'll gladly go as guest rather than being the host!

This afternoon we had drop-in company for a short visit.  It's always good to get to visit with Linda and Doyle.  Nathan went to prison, again, today!  They did let him out after he did his juggling, etc. to help entertain the prisoners' families on visitation day. He drove our car and when he brought the key back for the car, he stayed and visited for a while, as the rest of his family were off gadding about. He ended up having some chicken gumbo with us for supper.  We're back to being just the two of us and settling back into a routinely quiet Saturday evening.

Bread and Groceries

Woody started out the morning running part of our Friday errands.  He went to the Credit Union, got gas in the car, and went to WalMart.  He said that was as much as he could push a cart so he came home to rest a bit before he headed off to take his friend to run errands.

I started making English muffins while he was gone to do our errands.  Since he didn't make it to the grocery store, I needed to make that run, but had to wait till my muffins came out of the oven.  Woody was home from running errands for his friend by the time I was ready to go run my errands and go to the grocery store.  I made a stop at the sewing machine store to buy some machine embroidery stabilizer that I was out of, also stopped at the library to pick up a book that I had requested.  The library won't allow anyone to pick up a book that has been requested except for the person who requested it.  I would have just let Woody get it tomorrow when he goes, but had to do it myself due to library rules!  Then it was on to the grocery store.  It always takes me longer than Woody as I really don't know where things are since he usually does our shopping.  I got back home and lugged. In the bags of groceries to find out that they hadn't given me the sale price on a fairly expensive item nor had they subtracted the e-coupon.  So back to the store I went, after I put away the cold items and returned it.  We will do without that item! I didn't want to mess with trying to get it worked out according to sale and coupon.  Enough was enough with that grocery trip!  I still have a few items to put away.  But decided that I would blog while I rested for a few minutes.

We had chicken gumbo tonight for supper.  I made that yesterday.  I use a salt-free Cajun spice mixture in the gumbo.  I used the last of my spice mixture yesterday so mixed up some more today to have the next time I need it.  Easier to make the spice mixture and refill my container that was already labeled than to put it back on the shelf empty or to wash the container and have to relabel later!

I guess I am rested enough that I should head down to finish up with the grocery mess before it gets any later.  All my coming and going has worn me out today.  I'm ready to sit in my chair and read!  Woody is watching Friday evening news reports on TV.  So it looks like another rather quiet Friday evening in our household.

Oh, and, Nathan was running the Deere around our front yard when I got home from my second trip to the store.  He had a bit of a problem getting it going this afternoon, but his backdoor neighbor and one of his workmen helped work out the problem.  Sounds like the problem was water in the gas line...at least problem was solved and he made pretty short work of what has been known to take a really long time!  He said less than five minutes for the front yard.  This year is one of those years that has produced an abundance of acorns...dangerous underfoot!  I don't think that it sucked up all of those, but perhaps the blower or some little boys can finish up that part of the yard clean up!

Can it Be? Abigail Sweet Sixteen!?!

The top two pictures are from her party on October 6.  She chose and printed pictures from throughout her first 16 years to glue on her initials and the number 16. Her cake looked like a volleyball and she had her guests sign a volleyball.  She invited her volleyball team along with several other friends and family.

She got flocked today like Joy did last week!

Today she had family gifts and some more cake and ice cream!

She has had a wonderful time celebrating being 16, BUT this last photo is what she is most excited about!  Yes...there is another licensed driver in Tullahoma today!  She was very excited that she was going to get to drive all by herself to volleyball practice tonight!  

Happy 16th birthday, Abigail!

A Saucy Day

Aren't these peppers beautiful...all sweet peppers that a friend of mine and her husband grew.  She generously gifts us with peppers that I use in many things that I cook since they are a big thumbs up in what Woody can eat.  Literally it was a saucy day for me in the kitchen! Woody was out of salad dressing so I made him an herb oil and vinegar dressing...sort of a sauce!  He had it on a salad for lunch and sounds like the ratio of sweet and sour was right for this particular recipe.  Since I had the blender attachment for the food processor out, I decided that it was a good time to make red pepper sauce, which is a condiment for Woody.  It takes the place of catsup on sandwiches or meatloaf or whatever he decides to put it on.  It really is tasty.  It is made from roasted red peppers.  I roast a lot of the peppers that my friend gives me.  The roasted red peppers themselves are good on sandwiches, but they turn into a really good sauce. This time, I decided to see how the sauce will freeze...so we will be able to have it on hand and I won't have to make it quite so often.  Since I have an abundance of roasted peppers at the moment, it was a good time to make a large batch and freeze some.  I feel like it should thaw out just fine.  We will see...eventually.

After lunch I headed to the church to work in the library for a while.  Donna and I got quite a bit done.  We processed some books to the point of them being ready for continued processing next week...first steps done.

I came home and read and rested for a little while till it was time to fix supper. I finished a book this morning and am now working on finishing another that I have been reading on for some time. I'm ready to be finished with this book.  After my reading rest, I made a zucchini, yellow squash, and onion dish that Woody really likes.  And, it is a low protein dish that supposedly his kidneys like!

New (to us) Wheels

Our two families (Nathan's and ours) have shared push mowers...we each have push mowers but more times than not one or the other isn't working.  They are both about on their last "legs."  Yesterday when Woody went visiting one of his deacon families, he found out that they were wanting to sell their riding mower.  Nathan went over to look at it today and decided that it was worthy of purchasing.  Woody gave Nathan a check to purchase it and so here it now sits in their yard.  It will need a bit of work as it hadn't been run in a while, but between Nathan and Graham they are sure that it will be up and going and end up being very helpful to both of our yards.  The most positive thing about having this wheeled helper at this time of the year is the fact that it will pick up the leaves eliminating a LOT of raking!  All, children and adults, were very happy about that.  

The rest of the day was pretty normal...school for the children and me, puzzles, TV, and reading for Woody.  Woody wasn't sure for a while if he would have a TV as he couldn't get it to turn on this morning.  Nathan attempted to get it working and in the end took the remote home to clean it and consult with Graham.  Graham knew what to check and cleaned it and had it back to working.  Woody was a bit sad that he missed his morning news, but he has had news at the rest of the times today!  

I just got finished cleaning up the kitchen after making our supper.  We had one of our favorites, Sweet and Sour Pork.  I had cooked a pork roast over the weekend so part of it went into this recipe.  This is a recipe that I can make that is okay for Woody.  I don't put a lot of pork in it and leave out the soy sauce and add a little ground ginger and it works fine and is very tasty.  As I was typing this I just realized that I forgot to put the frozen peas in tonight's version.  Oops!  Guess I will add some to the leftovers when we have it in the next day or so!  Guess I was going pretty much by memory on this recipe and just let the peas slip my mind!  This recipe was originally for sweet and sour chicken and I substitute pork sometimes.  We eat a lot of chicken and it is good to switch out to the "other white meat" (pork) once in a while!  With Woody's limited diet it is so hard to offer a variety.  Today I realized that I can make one of our chicken gumbo recipes that will be okay for Woody...just leave out the sausage.  It is very hard to find soup recipes that don't have tomatoes, beans, broccoli, (any dark green veggie), or potatoes in them...things that are major "no no's" for Woody's diet. But I will say that I don't think that he is starving and I'm working hard to try to not make his food too monotonous.  

Slow and Steady

I wish that time would go "slow and steady" like this turtle rather than quick like a bunny!

It has been a rather slow-paced day, at least for me.  I had school in the morning and then in the afternoon I turned into a "reading afternoon."  I had a book to finish and then Woody had a book for me that he got at the library on Saturday.  He had finished reading it and handed it over to me.  I also "think" that I took a couple of little naps between chapters, or, perhaps in the middle of chapters!  I didn't do any cooking except for warming up things that I made over the weekend.  I had a major cooking day on Saturday and didn't cook today or yesterday.  A nice change of pace.  Yesterday I worked in the sewing room on Christmas gifts.  I "think" that I may head into the sewing room after I blog and perhaps get another gift done this evening.  

Woody had a quiet morning with his crossword puzzles, books, and TV.  After lunch, he visited with one of his deacon families.  This evening he is at the Monday Night Furnace Room Prayer meeting.  

So he has made several "trips" out today.

Our weather has made a big change over to cooler temperatures.  It always takes me a while to get used to colder temps especially when we had been having record breaking highs.  It had started to feel like it would be summer forever.  

Over the weekend we made another order for honeycomb shades.  We like the ones we ordered for the kitchen and said that we would get them for the sunporch and laundry room if we liked the ones in the kitchen.  The laundry room got the one that came for the kitchen that had a problem due to tape being stuck to it and ripping some of the paper off the shade so the company replaced it.  It happened to fit the laundry room window so we decided that it would work in there since it is rarely seen!  So the new order is for the windows in the sunporch and for the door in there.  This area runs along the back of our house and is mostly Windows and despite us having special thermal windows, it still gets 

cold when it is very cold outside and very hot when the sun beats in on summer afternoons.  We think that it will be good to insulate the windows  a bit more with these honeycomb shades.  Nathan did a great job and made it look easy to install them so hope that these will go up as easily.  We got Nathan to measure and then Woody and I remeasured prior to ordering just to be sure! Looking forward to having those windows  covered for the first time since we moved in in 1984.

Happy 14th Birthday, Joy!

Joy Got Flocked!

Joy woke up to a flock of flamingos in her yard this morning.  Her Sunday School class is helping her celebrate her 14th birthday.  Tomorrow is her birthday, but they wanted to be sure that she got a head start celebrating!  There will be more celebrating tomorrow.

Woody headed out early to do our weekly grocery shopping.  I got busy making a pot of soup...the weather is supposed to make a big drop in temperature sometime today...so far that drop hasn't happened.  I brought in and out away the groceries once Woody got back.  He rested up from his shopping effort and then headed off to run errands with his friend who has no transportation.  Five hours later he returned!  Woody ended up running errands for his friend and a friend of his friend. Woody said that he never got out of the car, just drove them from place to place.  I was beginning to wonder if he had gotten lost or if the car had broken down!  

This evening has been interesting.  First Joy came over wanting to look through my pictures for a couple of photos to print to frame.  She said that she wanted a scene. I laughed and asked her if she knew how many pictures that would mean going through!  She did find two she liked...one flower and one with a butterfly and flowers.  We looked through a lot!  Before Joy had chosen the pictures she wanted, Abigail came over wanting either Goosey or me to go for a ride with her.  She still needs to get in some rode night time driving before she goes to get her driver's license this coming week.  I told her to ask Goosey, since I was helping Joy.  Goosey wasn't too keen on getting back in the car after being in it for so long this afternoon!  I ended up going with Abigail after we got Joy's pictures sent to her daddy for him to print.  So Abigail and I tooled around in the surrounding neighborhoods to add another half hour to her night driving time.  She really does a good job especially considering that she is driving their big 15-passenger van!  I wouldn't want to drive it!  She is very excited for next Thursday to get here so she can get her license!  Such a big event in a sixteen-year-old's life!  She wants to be able to drive by herself!

I "think" that Woody and I are both in for the night now!  A little more happening on this Friday night than usual...but now we can settle in for the rest of a quiet evening!

Simple Machines = Levers = Hockey Stick

 

Today during Isaac's long time with me, he decided to go back to our "study" of simple machines using a K'nex learning kit.  First he built a wheel barrow, a class 2 lever.  Second he built a hockey stick, a class 3 lever.  Building the hockey stick made him want to build a couple of goals and find something for a puck.  Joseph was over working with my iPad and an Osmo math game.  Isaac invited Joseph to join him playing hockey down in the kitchen.  They built a hockey rink using books.  The hockey puck is one of the K'nex pieces that can be used as a pulley or a center of some of  the wheels.  They enjoyed doing this a lot...and maybe Isaac understands a little about levers and how they are simple machines that make work easier for us!  They even came back after lunch and set the game back up and Eijah came over and made a hockey stick and played with them for a while.  Never know where school learning will lead!  Learned something (hopefully!) and had great fun!  

I can't believe that another school week is under our belts.  This year is just flying by!  

Woody had a pretty usual day around the house...crossword puzzles, Scrabble on the computer, reading, watching some TV.  This afternoon he visited with one of his Deacon families, so he did go out for a little while.  

After making noodles twice this week, I sort of took the day off for cooking except for warming up leftovers. Oh, I did cook half the noodles that I made yesterday to go with the leftover meatballs and gravy. We both enjoyed that dish...we rarely have beef these days.  But I figured a couple of meatballs would be okay for a bit of a change!  I did fix a vegetable side dish for a member of our 

Sunday School class. She swerved to miss a dog and ended up with the airbags in her car going off 

which left her with two broken ribs and a broken bone in her ankle!  Sometimes airbags aren't such a good thing!!

Success!!!

IF AT FIRST YOU DONT SUCCEED,

TRY, TRY AGAIN!

A Semi-Success

I tried something new today—homemade noodles.  Melany and Wade had given me this pasta machine some years ago.  Nathan and Kathy have used it, but I had never tried to make noodles from scratch before.  I needed noodles to serve with meatballs and gravy and didn't have any that I thought would work well with the meatballs so decided that today would be the day to make noodles.  I had somewhat of a success...not perfect...but I got enough good noodles to make two servings.  Some of them stuck together.  I think that I know what I did incorrectly so may try to make them again tomorrow or the next day to go with the rest of the meatballs and gravy.  Their were enough good ones to make it seem worthwhile to "try, try again!"

I now have quite a mess to clean up, but needed to rest my back before continuing in the kitchen.  So I am blogging and then will go attack the mess that is still there.  Woodsy assured me that it  would be there when I returned!



I had only a partial day of school...no long time today as one of their cousins is visiting.  It continued to feel like a fall day...temps were definitely lots cooler.  Abigail and I went shoe shopping this afternoon.  I had planned to go to her volleyball game, but due to our supper taking longer than I planned, I didn't get finished in time to go.  I hear that they had a fairly easy win this evening.  While I was working on the noodles, Woody went to the prayer room at church.

Well, I guess I have rested my back long enough, time to head back to a big clean-up job!  I had planned to use Abigail's birthday party pictures tonight, but decided that I will wait till her actual birthday.  Joy's birthday will be first...this is our big month of birthdays...niece, nephew, 2 grandchildren and great nephew and great niece!

Actually Feels Like Fall...BUT...

Well, it may feel like Fall today, it certainly doesn't look like Fall!  I borrowed this photo from a year in the past.  I wonder if we will have pretty colors this year since it has been so dry.  We had our first real rain in a couple of months last night.  It was so good to be awakened to the rain pounding on the windows.  Now...one sound I could do without is that of falling acorns on the roof...they really make a racket and they are really falling at this time. The squirrels should be in heaven there are so many of them.  Woody has been keeping the leaf blower plugged in so he can blow off the sidewalk to our driveway...trying to keep one of us or anyone from falling due to rolling on acorns underfoot!  They can be dangerous!


I started to put a photo of Isaac on tonight's blog...but he looked so miserable in it that I decided not to!  Friday night just as I was posting the blog, I heard a loud outcry between our house and Nathan and Kathy's.  I tried to look out to see which child it was...thought that it was one of the younger boys...really thought that it was Joseph.  I couldn't see out the window as it had gotten too dark.  I hurried down the stairs to see if my aid was needed.  By the time that I got out the door and into our front yard, the crying had ceased...outside at least...so I knew that whoever it was had gotten inside.  I decided that they were probably in good hands so came back inside.  But not long after I went back in, Joy and Elijah came bursting in the house telling me that I needed to go to their house to see Isaac's swollen lip.  So off I went.  And, sure enough, there was Isaac with an ice pack on his lips and blood all over his camo shirt (camo even camos blood!).  He and Joy had been playing softball and Joy pitched a ball when he was in the batter's box too far and it didn't whiz by him...instead it landed
right on his mouth.  There was much concern about one of his front teeth (same one he chipped earlier in the summer).  Kathy had sent a photo to the dentist's office and someone in the office sent it to the dentist.  He was on his way out of town but hadn't left yet, so he decided to make a house call to check to see in person how bad it was!  Ever heard of a dentist making a house call before?!?  The tooth wasn't as loose as the dentist feared by the photo so gave Isaac instructions to not run around playing for TWO WEEKS!  And, to eat only soft food for the same amount of time!  He is to have an X-ray done of his tooth tomorrow to make sure that the root isn't damaged.  He is also on an antibiotic.  I know this dentist explained to me this summer that the body can try to reject a tooth that is injured so they give an antibiotic to try to prevent that from happening.  Always something next door!  But Kathy said that that was the most blood she had seen in all her mothering days!  He still has very swollen lips on one side but seems to be doing okay...and the tooth seems to have tightened up.

Yesterday was an exciting day for Abigail.  She celebrated her 16th birthday just a bit early as this was the best Sunday for her to have a party.  She planned the party herself.  They had it at the church ministry center.  She invited friends, family, special folk in her life, etc.  I haven't uploaded the pictures yet...will do that and share in tomorrow's blog.  Most of her volleyball team came and they went outside and played volleyball after spaghetti, salad, garlic bread, and cake and ice cream.  Abigail made one of her special cheesecakes.  Spaghetti has always been Abigail's favorite meal and she almost always chooses it for her birthday meal so it was a very Abigail-party! Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves...especially the birthday girl!

Tea & Cookies & A Kitchen Viewing

The Hasty's came over today to see the kitchen.  They wanted to see it for the first time when it was completely finished.  With the hanging of the clock last night, it was at long last complete so they could come check things out!  We invited them for tea and cookies.  Linda was the person who encouraged me years ago to go for a kitchen makeover...and I finally followed through with her advice.  She was also the person who said that she saw the kitchen in golden yellow tones...those were the colors that we love so it was easy to go from there!  It just took a long time making decisions and then finally making that decision to go through with it and contact a contractor to actually do the job.  I have been gathering ideas, paint chips, etc. for years.  They built a house in the meanwhile and I got to go check out their dream kitchen to help me finalize some of my decisions.  I know that they were responsible for the relocation my tray shelves.  The contractor wanted them over the refrigerator.  Linda said, "too high" and suggested that we put them in the pantry...the perfect place and the contractor easily made the changes.  Linda went over our kitchen blue prints with a fine tooth comb and pointed out things that were positives and negatives and then I worked with the contractor from there.  She and Doyle have been following the progress on the blog, but today was the first time that they got to see it in 3-D and touch!  I think that we got a thumbs up from both of them. After looking at the kitchen, the four of us adjourned to the living room and enjoyed cookies (I felt they needed to test something produced in the kitchen before they could put their total approval on the renovation project!) We enjoyed catching up, sipping iced tea on this hot day and nibbling on a variety of cookies.  I think that favorites were: for Linda and me = chocolate chocolate chip; for Doyle = oatmeal; for Woody = snickerdoodles.  Oh, and, Woody sipped on ice water.  He is not a fan of tea in any form!

The Finishing Nail!

Nathan drove in the nail that competed the kitchen renovation.  That was the nail that allowed me to hang up the clock.

As I mentioned the other night, we're not 100% happy with the placement of the photo...the current time is an example that it will be a bit hard to see hands and numbers at certain times of the day. But I realize what happened...when they took my photo and made it fill a 15" circle this is the way the items in the photo landed on the clock face.  We/Nathan might try to outline the numbers in the shadows and maybe even the hands...it at this point, I am just glad that it is hanging!

This is a barn that I took on one of my friends' and my "barn photo trips."  It is a barn that has seen better days and might not be standing too many more years, but I thought that it had a lot of character...along with colors that I wanted in my kitchen!  The main landmark in this photo is the background.  The straight line that goes out from the point of the barn room is the Highland Rim...a very noticeable landform in this area of Middle Tennessee.  When I just mentioned it to Woody, he 

said that he saw the Highland Rim today on his travel to take his friend to the doctor.  And, because of the crop of the photo, it is hard to see, but there is a very murky pond and cows on the other side of the barn.  Here's the composition of the photo before the clock company cropped it.  It is a neat process that they do to put the photo on the clock face.  They actually print it on the wood of the clock face.  

Woody was gone most of the morning taking his friend to the doctor and then running errands with him.  I stayed busy in the house this morning.  Then this afternoon I did our weekly grocery shopping since Woody hadn't had time to do it this morning.  I came home and got the groceries put away and then it was time to get started on supper.  I made an adaption of a Mexican Rice recipe so it was "Woody friendly."  And, we had some of the garlic chicken that I made a couple of days ago,  the dishwasher is going and I needed to rest for a bit so decided to blog before going down and cleaning up the rest of the kitchen. It was a long morning for Woody and was a long afternoon for me!

And, That's All for Fall Ball 2019!

Good last game for the Fall Ball season for the Vols.  They won in the last inning.  Elijah played 2nd, short stop, 3rd, left field, and catcher.  His coach likes to move the boys around and give them experience in many positions!  He may be doing that for a couple of reasons...for the boys to try different positions and also to see how the boys do in the various positions, as he is looking for players he wants to draft for his Spring Little League team. So there is a bit of scouting going on by coaches during this season.

It has been another hot day here in Middle Tennessee—temperatures getting all too close to the 100° mark.  I've heard that the temperatures are supposed to be going down slightly and maybe we won't get out of the 80's...still too hot for Octobrr!

Isaac had his long time with me today and decided to do coding with the Osmo iPad system.  He really made great strides with his coding and got much farther than he ever had before.  He was so excited!

This evening we have been at the ball game.  Now to settle in for the evening!

Mooooovin' on into October

Woody had an early appointment at the Oncology clinic here in town.  He goes there for lab work, a shot for his anemia and also gets a B-12 shot.  He goes once a month and every third visit sees a doctor.  I "think" that winds up his scheduled appointments till the end of the month.

My morning task was to do "something" with some chicken breasts that were in the refrigerator.  I skinned them, deboned them, and then cooked part of them.  I made an easy recipe called Garlic Chicken.  You dip them in garlic infused olive oil and then in bread crumbs that have a little Parmesan cheese mixed in.  Then you bake them in a fairly hot oven.  They came out quite tasty.

After lunch, Elijah, Isaac, and Joseph came over to spend the afternoon.  The rest of the family were doing an after school back yard Bible club at one of the local elementary schools.  I left Woody in charge of the boys, when I headed out to work in the library.  Donna and I didn't have a lot to do there today so we didn't stay very long.  When Kathy got home, she and Graham needed to go pick up their camper so the three boys and I went over to their house.  They were ready to spend some time at home.  I read and worked some on this week's Sunday School lesson.

After supper, I decided that I "needed" something chocolate so I decided to make some Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies—a new recipe.  The dough is chilling while I blog.  I will go down and clean up the kitchen while they are baking.  This recipe got rave reviews on AllRecipes.com. I guess we will see if the reviews were correct.  Well, tonight it will be just me deciding, as this isn't a "Woody friendly" recipe.  We do still have cookies in the freezer that he can eat, so if he feels neglected I'll get into the freezer stash...maybe!

95° Heat Welcomes October!

Well, October was welcomed in TN with extreme heat.  Can it really be this close to Christmas and be this hot?  This is reminiscent of living in Arizona!  We have had so little rain that the humidity isn't oppressive like it can be sometimes here in Middle TN.

Last night's game was really exciting.  Elijah had a "home run"  due to some throwing errors!  He will take one any way he can get one.  He had a couple really good hits in the game.  The last two innings he played catcher...a position that he rarely plays and did a very good job behind the plate!  His team won so that made the game all that much better! He only has one more game during this Fall Ball season.

I woke up way too early this morning...3am and never went back to sleep.  So I had a bit of a hard time staying awake when sitting still reading with the children this morning.  It's entertaining for the children when Grammy starts dozing in the middle of sentences...she tends to add in words that aren't there!  They think it is funny!  I'm glad to provide entertainment for them once in a while!  I did wake up enough to be able to get Elijah going on his experiments for today. Really all I needed to do was get up and move around and I woke right up!  He decided last week that he wanted to make play dough like Isaac and Joseph made.  I decided that it would be easy for play dough to be a science experiment.  He made two different kinds from what the little boys had made and then compared their properties.  He let Esther join him since she missed her time yesterday due to Woody's doctor appointment.  Not long after he and Esther got started Isaac and Joseph joined us.  It worked out very well and we definitely got two very different types of play dough and then had Joseph and Isaac bring theirs down to compare.  They moved from one kind to another and described how it felt, etc. and decided which they liked best.  It was a fun hour!  But boy what a mess was made in the kitchen.  It took over an hour to get the kitchen back to where it was prior to the experimenting...even had to mop the floor!  But I found out that five can work in the kitchen at one time!

Woody was able to stay inside most of the day...stayed cooler that way!  He did the usual: crossword puzzles, reading, Scrabble on the computer, more reading, and some TV watching.  After my kitchen clean up and a late lunch, I took a little nap due to my early rising time.  When I got up it was time to start supper.  I made a Pasta Primavera dish for Woody and made a Mediterranean Tuna Salad for me.   Woody can't have tuna.  I hadn't had tuna in a while...not exactly my favorite...but needed something different.  It tasted pretty good since I hadn't had this recipe in a while. It will be even better tomorrow when it is good and cold!  Always glad to have leftovers and there are leftovers of both of today's cooking efforts.

Over the weekend I did get another Christmas ornament embroidered.  I "should" go do another this evening.  I have to get disciplined about cranking them out or I won't get them finished for this year's Christmas!