Week 48 - Thanksgiving

I took this week off from work.  No specific plans except to sleep a lot and do whatever I wanted, when I wanted, if I wanted.  Today is my last day of Staycation.  Mom and I made peanut butter cookies, almond spritz cookies, caramel apple fudge, and buttery coconut pecan candy.  We made pies for Thanksgiving dinner, spent a bit of time at the Yarn shop, and generally relaxed.  I have to admit, I really enjoyed having this time off.  I even lost almost 5 pounds...who would have thought it?

Thursday was our Thanksgiving feast.  We had 3 of John's sisters, along with our nephew and his wonderful family join us for dinner.  Turkey cooked on the Big Green Egg, glazed ham, candied sweet potatoes, fresh green beans with onion and bacon, maple-glazed butternut squash, deviled eggs, pickles, olives, and for dessert, 4 kinds of pies.  

It's always so good to have family together.  Here we are with most everyone enjoying post-dinner conversation.

Good food, conversation, laughter, stories, plenty of love to go around.

Wishing you all a Happy Thanksgiving and hoping the coming Christmas season is joyful and abundant.

Thanks for stopping by.

Week 48 - Fall Trees and a SuperMoon

Most of the autmnal color has gone away in this part of the Ozarks.  Sometimes, though, I see a splash of orange or red that catches my eye and makes me stop what I'm doing and enjoy the last vestiges of Autumn before we enter the cold season.  I was at the drive-thru banking window the other day and I looked around and saw this:

 In real life, it's much more vibrant than this picture depicts. It made my heart smile.

This past week we were able to see the SuperMoon.  Living in the country, I don't think it was as large and awesome as folks who live in the city saw it.  That's just my guess, though.  It was a normal-sized moon here...pretty, none-the-less.

I took this just as the moon was rising...to our east and you can see our grove of trees just below the moon.  Shortly after that, the clouds moved in and obscured the view.  It looks like the moon is hanging from a small cloud, doesn't it?

Our Gilligan is what we call an Up cat...he always wants to be up....hates being on the ground....I think that comes from his kittenhood...what we first adopted him, we were always holding him and he came to accept that as his due. 

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here...yes, once I typed this, I heard the song in my head....and it won't go away!  Darned earworms!!!

Was in mom's room and saw the Post Office truck go by...not unusual but today is Sunday...no mail delivery, normally.  John came in a few minutes later with packages in hand.  Evidently, Amazon is trying a new program with the post office and they will be delivering every Sunday till after Christmas...we are in a test zone and got several packages today.  

I'm told by Mr. Wonderful that there were more packages delivered but since it's That Time of Year, I'm not to ask too many questions.  These packages were ones addressed to me or to Knotwell Family Christmas....or to Dad Knotwell Birthday.  I'm allowed to handle those!  

Well, the laundry buzzer is making itself heard throughout the land and I need to get some more things done around here.  This next week I am on Staycation...mom and I are going to bake cookies, gingerbread, candy...and, of course, Thanksgiving is Thursday.  Should have some great pictures to share from this week when next we meet. In the meantime, 

Thanks for stopping by!

Week 47 - A Happy Birthday Surprise, 3 Weeks Early

First, let's get the election crap out of the way.  I'm appalled at the actions of so many so-called Americans who feel that the way to show their unhappiness at the outcome is to name-call, loot, riot, burn, and generally have major temper tantrums.  It's not going to change the outcome.  I was raised that I was to cast my vote and then accept what ended up being the decision.  I was raised that we, as Americans have the luxury of being able to change our government once every 4 years.  I was NOT raised to damage other peoples' property just because the candidate I favored lost the election.  I was NOT raised to call people names just because disagreed with their opinion or how they voted. I saw something the other day that made sense, in a weird way.  It was a cartoon of all these rioters gathered in the street and the caption said, "That's what happens when everyone gets a trophy for participating." No one has to accept defeat anymore.  Folks don't understand, or maybe care, that there are two sides to every decision, election, or question.  And usually one side 'loses'.  That's not an excuse to pillage.  Get over it, folks... remember that when Obama won in 2008 and 2012, there were no riots, there were no protests.  Grow up...And to think we get to do this again in 4 years.  Sheesh!

On to happier things.  On Friday, which was not only Veteran's Day (thank you to everyone who served or is still serving.  Thank you for making the sacrifice of family, home, hot food, and relative safety) it was also a day to celebrate John's birthday - albeit 3 weeks early.  I had been secretly arranging to purchase him his very own brand spanking new tractor, brush hog, and hay spike.  Well, all things finally aligned and they were delivered on Friday evening.  He sure was surprised.  Can you tell?

Too close?  How about this?

Now he can cut down the tall grasses without borrowing our neighbor's tractor and brush hog...and he can put hay out for the cows, too.

Our neighbor across the road put this out the other day. Can you see his festive neckwear?  It makes me happy.

Thanks for stopping by!

Week 46 - Fall Weather

Fall weather is now upon us...thank goodness!  The heat and humidity of summer is, apparently, gone and we are enjoying the cooler temps.  Mom and I sat out on the front porch the other day and knitted for about an hour. The breeze made the flagpole flap and we agreed it was a most lovely sound.

  

I finally did some more fall decorating this past week. We'd had these trees in the entryway for literally 10 or more years.  But the bottom was just a metal stand - quite unattractive!  So I took some burlap and some squished packing paper and gathered it all up onto the trunk and fastened it with some sparkly fall-colored ribbons and Voila!  It looks like it just came from the nursery and is awaiting planting!

While I was on a roll, I worked up this lovely tray for the morning room table.  We had gotten the tray, a rustic metal and wooden one, from Hobby Lobby and I wanted a new display for the table.  Add a miasma of autumn-colored silk flowers and you have a beautiful table decoration.  Even if I DO say so myself, it's quite pretty.

Last weekend the folks who were processing chickens were able to process 51 of them.  They were our friend's chickens.  This weekend, they did ours.  We had 34 chickens to process.  We started out with 37 but lost 3 over the course of the last 8 weeks.  Not bad really.  All the chooks (I love this term...from my Australian friend, Jennifer!) were processed and set into an icebath.  Once rigor mortis had passed thru the bodies (takes about 18-24 hours), they are now able to weigh and bag them.  I'm suspecting ours will come in at around 6-7 pounds each.  A lovely size for a family dinner with bones left for making stock!  I'll be out in the garage moving frozen items around in the 3 freezers to make room for this batch.  And we have chicken for almost a year!

I'm working on a Christmas stocking for mom...evidently, she never did get a stocking from me all those years ago when I was a stocking-making machine.  Well, time to correct that oversight!  I had several kits and she picked out the one she wants.  Here is a picture of the package.

Of course, it won't say Eric.  I've embroidered out a 'nameplate' that says Bette and will applique it there.  I like doing these...they do, however, take time.  This one will zip along quite quickly, though, cause there are only 37 pieces to it.  Will show it once it's done.

Thank for stopping by!