Monday, August 31, 2015

Just a Quick Hello!

Hi, friends!

A little greeting on this Monday morning will help the day start right!  I've had snippets of blog posts, but nothing has materialized yet!  This week looks to be kind of a funny week because we are all thinking thoughts of Fall, yet the forecast is calling for some very hot days!

The kids (and I!) are easing into the school routine.  We all love picking out new pencils and notebooks.  Even littlest girl, who is not really in school, was thrilled to have her new green notebook.  I was thrilled it was 17 cents!

We hope (since Labor Day gives us an extra day of Big Fish at home) to process our turkeys this weekend.  The turkeys have been weighed, and Saturday has been designated.  Our biggest tom weighs 50 pounds!!!  Dressed in my freezer we are going to have quite a Thanksgiving dinner.  I'll let you know his final weight.

I am knitting up a storm!  My goal is to make one thing a day to add to my bath and body products, so I am working on washcloths and other little knitted goodies.  I might have to expand to 2 tables and a shelf for display purposes!

Finally for today, our 2nd doe rabbit had her babies last week.  We are excited to see them emerge from their fur nest; there are 6 of the little babies. 

TTFN!  Hope your week is a blessed one!

Friday, August 7, 2015

A Fun Little Happening

We have a lovely lady in our church named Garnet (I even love her name!).  She sits in the pew next to us, but she also happens to live less than 5 minutes from our house.  Here husband Bill passed away this summer; he was the last male charter member of our church actually!  While he was still alive my husband would be part of a crew to help Bill up the stairs into our church sanctuary.

Garnet has been going on and on to me that she wants to give our family a cake!  Her relative is a caterer, and Garnet wanted her to make us a cake for us.  Isn't that so kind?  Well, you should see this cake that is now in my refrigerator!  The obtaining of it was a little story itself!

'Twas a dark night last night.  Thursday evenings I regular drive (about 30 minutes) to Grove City to attend Knit Night at the downtown ice cream shop (Sweet Jeannie's).  Last night after knitting I had to pick up a few groceries as well.  I was more late than usual driving home.

My phone rang with a "restricted" number, so I did not answer.  Just as I heard the beep for a new voicemail I also had a new text message come in from ANOTHER friend saying that Garnet was trying to get in touch.  I hurriedly listened to the voicemail which was indeed Garnet saying she had driven to our house with a cake (!), but she went home because no one seemed to be home.  Now, Garnet had never driven to our house before!  I still am so impressed she tried to find our house around 9 p.m. to give us this cake! 

I do believe she was in our driveway, but since I was at Knit Night and Big Fish had put the kids in bed and was watching a movie the house was pretty dark.  Also, our house is far back off the road; I just can't even imagine Garnet's perseverance!!  They were late in coming because on their (she and a cousin) way back from picking up the cake they came across a huge tree down in the road.  They had to do all kinds of backtracking to get to our area.

Finally I talked to her on the phone and told her I was still driving home and would be coming RIGHT BY her house in about 10 minutes.  Of course she was waiting for me on her front porch, and I picked up this cake.  Just take a minute to look at this cake:







Her relative, whom we have never met, collected from Garnet the information that we have "kids, bees, and other critters running around"; so this is the decal she picked.  I am just tickled pink with those bees all over the sides.  Isn't this just the most lovely thing.....a cake this fancy made especially for us.  What an adventure!  I told Garnet I would show the kids the cake when they woke up in the morning and take a picture.  We cannot wait to eat this!  Thank you, Garnet and your cake-making relative!

TTFN!  We're off to spend the day at Grandma and Grandad's!

Tuesday, August 4, 2015

Still Here! Busy Summering!

Hello, little blog!  I thought, since the laptop is now in working order (something happened with the hard drive and also something else - I don't know details), I'd check in.  Boy has the time been passing super fast; I can't believe all the back-to-school posts and activities around.

My goal today is to take my camera outside to snap pictures of the fairy garden the girls and I have been putting together.  We had an unwelcome visitor, in the form of a black bear, come around while we were attending a picnic yesterday evening.  We need to re-adjust our garden a bit, for that bear dug up some flowers (I think the bear was attracted to the compost/manure blended in the soil mix).  I also want a picture of the baby bunnies!

Jacob and Abigail are mainly involved in our rabbitry endeavor.  Through the generosity of a teenage friend from church they inherited some rabbit cages, feed, shavings, water bottles, and a rabbit named General.  We acquired 2 doe rabbits from a local breeder.  So, we have one litter that has arrived a couple of weeks ago; and we hope in a few more weeks to have some more babies!  Thankfully the cute little babies become not-so-cute when we use them for our meals.  We have been enjoying taming the 2 mama rabbits, and General was already pretty tame when we obtained him.  What rabbit can resist a hand offering it clover and lettuce?  Oh!  I almost forgot the kids' names for the rabbits:  Abigail has named her rabbit "Verbena" after a flower we have, and Jacob has named his "Red Eye" for practical purposes :)

Finally in this jumble of a post, I tried a new recipe.  Through generosity of another family from church (maybe you should come to our church!) we had some wonderful green beans!!!  For a couple of years now I've read canning articles and canning cookbooks with recipes for dilly beans.....thought I'd try a few jars.  Those pints were put up yesterday, and they look so nice!  The true taste test occurs in 2 weeks.

Well, TTFN!  Off to fill the coffee mug!