A Sampling

Tonight's photos sort of give you an idea of what all Goosey (Woody) and Grammy (Lois) and Esther and Elijah have done over the last several days! We were so busy that I didn't pick my camera up all that often...didn't have time! This morning Goosey's Sweet Potato Waffles got us off to a good start. Then school got underway. And, Esther and Elijah did manage to get their school for the day finished before their family returned. Woody and Elijah with Esther's help played some catch this afternoon. I will admit to taking a nap after the children headed back to their house! This evening, Woody walked to the prayer room at church and has yet to return. One last word...wouldn't each of you want to be serenaded by the violin while you sew?!?

Hoppin' Right Along!

Things continue to hop around here. Esther and Elijah keep us on the go...and if we aren't moving then they probably are! This morning I was awakened by the printer in the sewing room printing off Woody's crossword puzzles of the day. I decided to stay under the covers till I heard the children stirring. But Elijah was pretty quiet...he was dressed and had completed his first school subject before I knew that he was up. Esther woke up soon after I discovered that Elijah was awake. We had "Egg Gramuffin"...Grammy's version of "Eggs McMuffin." They received a "thumbs up." We had school for the rest of the morning along with breaks between subjects which included pogo sticking. Woody went to the Life Care Center and had Bible study with Jeff. I just asked Woody if he walked four miles today and he thought for a minute and said that he guessed that he didn't. He played ball with Elijah and then took him to practice late this afternoon. After practice, they swung by the house and picked up Esther and went to pick up personal pan pizzas at Pizza Hut. Esther and Elijah had earned a free one each for reading a certain amount during the month of February. I popped a frozen pizza in the oven for Woody and me...so a very easy meal for this evening. The children are all bathed and are finishing up with their screen time for the evening. Next I will read them their stories and it will be lights out! Their family returns tomorrow. Well, off to read stories.

Quite a Busy Day

I'm not going to take the time to post a photo tonight or I will be even later posting. I just finished reading to Elijah and Woody is reading to Esther. The children piled in a little after eight this morning and the rest of the day has pretty much been non-stop. Woody headed off not long after they came over to do his Saturday errands. He didn't have any takers on going with him...that is till he came back home with the groceries and told them that he was off to the library. They climbed into the car and made that trip with him. We have snacked, eaten meals, etc. off and on for most of the day or so it seems! Woody went for a four-mile walk after lunch. He vowed to be back prior to needing to leave for Elijah's little league practice. And he was. Elijah had a great time at his first practice and Goosey (Woody) said that he did great both batting and fielding. Esther and I stayed at home and got an easy supper together so we could eat shortly after they got home from practice because we needed to be at their Upward's Basketball awards night at 6pm. So we were running on a bit of a tight schedule! We made it to the awards night program on time and found seats and enjoyed the entertainment...though we decided that we might just as soon have seen the Dazzling Dorrell's perform. And, they were performing tonight at an Upward's Basketball awards night, but just not in Tullahoma...not even in TN. Nathan called a while ago to bid the children good night and he said that they had had a good turnout for their evening event. We came home and Elijah hopped into the bathtub...Esther had had her bath while Elijah was at baseball practice. They are both now in bed all tucked in, read to, prayed with, and hopefully eyes shutting. I'm pretty sure that they will be asleep very shortly after all they have done today. My next job is to go in and sew two snaps onto Elijah's iPod case that we made today and it will be finished...so on top of all of the above Elijah and I got in sewing also. Goosey and I are now ready to sit back in our recliners and relax! I doubt that we will be long for this world and will be off to dreamland not long after the children!

Perfect Timing

I just happened to look out the window at the perfect time this evening and saw the setting sun outlined clouds. I grabbed my camera and captured several shots before the sun moved lower in the sky and the clouds no longer shone. We continue to get ready for two little munchkins who will be joining us for several days. I had to get rooms/beds ready for guests. I have done a little vacuuming, dusting, etc. getting them ready. I had to clear the guestroom bed of sewing debris as it is the room where the children sew on their projects. And I had to clear the bed in the school room of papers, etc. that seem to gather there due to school activities. Now we will just have to clear off decorative pillows from the guest room bed and stuffed animals and pillows from the school room bed. I'll let the children do that tomorrow night before they settle down for a good night's sleep. We have also been working on what we will eat while they are here...trying to get the grocery list ready before Woody heads off to the grocery store in the morning. Abigail came over after she got her school work finished and completed the cover for her Kindle. It really turned out great. She did a good job choosing fabrics, decorative buttons, and doing a lot of precise sewing. She is happy that it is finished so she will have it for their trip. Woody walked four miles this morning. I made a trip to the public library. I had two books that couldn't be renewed that were due today. Since I was going, I decided that I would find a few more books for me to read as I was out of fiction books...the kind that you can hold in your hand. I do have a couple of e-books that I am reading, but I still like to have an actual real book or two in a stack next to my recliner. So now I am happy once again...I have several non-fiction books as well as several fiction books...some of those books are mine, some the church library's and some the public library's...so I am well supplied with reading material for the present! When I finish blogging I am thinking about going downstairs to make cookies...Grammy's cookie jar is rarely filled so I thought that it might be fun for them to have something in it for a change...just wonder if Grammy and Goosey can resist what is in it! Our lack of will power to keep out of the cookie jar is the reason that it is usually empty...if we fill it WE will empty it! I figured that at least over the next few days we will have some help emptying it and it won't just be us eating the cookies. The kids are so used to it being empty they rarely ask if there is anything in it.

Thursday Through and Through

It has been a busy day. I am just now stopping long enough to be able to think about writing tonight's blog. Actually I have just walked back into the house. My ladies' Sunday School group ate out together tonight. I believe that a good time was had by all who attended. And, my hamburger was especially good as I received a coupon this morning via email that I got a free hamburger for my birthday. That coupon made my order an easy decision. And, it was a delicious...I enjoyed every bite along with the French fries. I guess my birthday celebration has started. I got a present from my sister and my new brother-in-law yesterday. Today I got an "almost" free meal. Just before I left to go out to eat, Woody headed next door to provide supervision over the seven neighbor grandchildren while their parents went on a date. Abigail spent a good part of the afternoon over here working diligently on her tablet cover. We are going to be hosting Esther and Elijah starting on Saturday for several days. I think that they just got started being excited as they came over and started setting up the toys, etc. the way they want them. I asked them if they were planning their time and they said they were. Isaac also came over and played. He is a bit sad that he isn't staying with us. Elijah starts little league practice this Saturday and both he and Esther have their awards night for Upwards basketball. Hopefully we can get them to all the places they need to be! Woody walked four miles today. It has been rather drizzly all day today. I had a regular day of school with my little students. Esther worked some more on her cross stitch. Elijah and I are planning on making his iPod "case" while he stays with us this weekend. Esther is also wanting a tablet cover...so the sewing machines may be humming while they are here. Abigail and Joy have done the sewing themselves on these covers, but I'm not sure how much Elijah and Esther will be able to do as they don't have as much experience on the machine and this cover calls for pretty precise seam width if these items are to fit their devices. Time will tell how much they will do! Before school started this morning, Woody got the last item stuffed (that's about what it took at the end) back into the Christmas closet. It is good to have a wider hallway once again. Esther and Elijah enjoyed playing school with the dolls and school desks that have a special place in the corner of the upstairs hallway...another way they were settling into a mindset of getting ready to live here for several days! I woke up way too early this morning and never stopped to rest during the day...so maybe I'll be able to sleep better tonight. I even managed to vacuum part of the living room before school started and later in the day Nathan helped me move the glider loveseat back to its non-Christmas spot. And, that sums up our day in backwards order...I needed to change up something in my ho-hum recitation of our dull daily lives!

Wednesday Wanderings

I'm not sure where tonight's title came from...but I guess we both did wander at least a little today. The children and I had our usual Wednesday school day. Today Abigail got the tablet cover that she is making cut out so she will be ready to head to the machine her next sewing session. She did get another zipper bag made yesterday and planned to give it to her friend tonight. After Joseph finished with his school time, he and Woody headed off to do our weekly Krogering. First of Woody's wanderings! Woody and I jointly made a pot of soup...today's recipe: Timber Charlie's Oriental Steak Soup. After we got the soup on the back burner, I headed off to the church to work in the library for a while. My wandering of the day. Woody stayed home to keep the soup from boiling over...well, let's say that he attempted to keep it from boiling over...I did notice evidence that perhaps he wasn't totally successful at keeping it all in the pot! After I got home from church, Woody walked to and from the Post Office for his daily walk...his second wandering. Woody has been plugging away at the boxes in the upstairs hall and has just about conquered the monumental task. We had soup for supper. And, now we are settling in for another quiet evening at the Dorrell household. I will end by wishing my sister a happy birthday. She is...ummmmmm...I guess Cheryl would just as soon not have me announce that number...I will say that for a few days we are only six years apart...but alas in a little over a week I will once again be seven years older than she. Happy Birthday, Cheryl!

Blue Bird of March

It is a little hard to say whether March came in like a lion or a lamb. We have had fairly warm temperatures today, but we have also had quite a bit of wind and rain and even had a thunder storm...so we have had a little bit of both. The children and I had school this morning. Woody walked to the pharmacy after lunch to pick up a prescription for each of us. He made it back just before it started raining really hard...as in...he walked in the door and the bottom dropped out of the sky. This afternoon I worked some more on organizing my needlework...getting reacquainted with I have. I'm still deciding what I want to work on next. Since it was a rainy afternoon I ended up reading for a while. Woody walked to the prayer room at church after supper tonight and has yet to return. We were rather glad that we voted early last week so we didn't have to get out in the rain on this the first day of March aka Super Tuesday. I spotted this bluebird on a branch outside our bedroom window when I closed the curtains at dusk. Bluebirds make me think "Spring!" But, alas, today's warmer temperatures are not to last...it's supposed to get down into the 30's over night.