Apples!

We got this 5 gallon bucket of apples!

My goodness, we had fun.  

First try on the applesauce I put it all through the blender and added the recommended sugar-it seemed too smooth and too sweet, so I made it into apple butter.  

Second try I just mashed it up with my bean smoosher from Mexico and added no sugar.  Better.  

I think we may be done preserving.  45 jars of various kinds of goodies.  

Can you guess what EVERYONE is getting for Christmas?  ;)   

And today we're off to the "Little Apple" for birthday celebrations and sister visits and Sorority weekends and all kinds of fun.  

Bag mending

I like to have a bag when I go to town to gather up all of the things-mail and errands and small purchases and lists and all of that.  

This one is my favorite, but the handles have really been used to bits.  

It's been in the mending basket, which I resolved to empty again.  I started by stitching some ribbon along each side. The white ribbon is from Christmas Jammies from Target, I think-from the packaging.  I can never throw good ribbon away, and it was so nice to use it up!  

I pinned the first one-you know I didn't pin any more after that!

Then I topstitched some matching ribbon over the top and added a little band at the bottom to cover the edges.  Good as new!  Both of those were leftover ribbons from dresses.  

It makes me really really happy to have my bag back for zero dollars.  :)

Fall 2014

OK!  I can like Fall now that it is officially here.  Just not before.  To everything there is a season, and all that.

So hooray for Fall!  There are lots of lovely things to do.  Let's see how Summer went.

Summer 2014

1.  The Fair!  All the projects, all the paperwork, all the events, all the animals-relax and enjoy.  Specifically:  

• Sundress
• T-shirt dress
• Orange Poppyseed cookies
• Apricot Spice Bars
• Pig
• Goat
• Photography
• Art piece
• Crochet
• Field Crops

2.  Finish Grazie's blankie! At the cabin-hooray!

3.  Write "Remarks" for AASL reception in Las Vegas.

4.  Go to Vegas and have a super fun time with MJL.

5.  Swim and hang out with Abby and have fun. 95 passes used this summer!  and 15 sno cone flavors knocked off the list.  :)

6.  2 year portraits of Mr. Jimmy and family pictures-cabin? Oops, no family pictures.  Hopefully we can do that this Fall.  

7.  Continue working on Study Room with Abby.  Really making progress! 

8.  Sort Mom's sewing stuff into my studio. 

9.  Finish READ 861 and get certified as a librarian! 

10.  Make box into "drawer" for Katie's clothes in new room.  

11.  Start a new school year.  Breathe and be easy.  

12.  Father's Day Paintings

13.  Finish Bible project for Jimmy's Birthday?  In progress though!  

14.    Filing in Office I did it once, but it built up again!  Silly papers.    Done again.

15.  Lobmeyer Banner?  I decided it would make more sense to make one the same time as I make Grazie's, once we know names and stuff.  :)  

Fall 2014

1.  Make big batch meatballs to freeze. MJL thought both of these were sketchy ideas, and he's the only reason to cook, so there you go!  Easily knocked off the list.  :)
2.  Make breaded chicken cutlets to freeze.
3.  Kids art binders.
4.  Have a baby!
5.  Get out stuff for baby.
6.  Make Christmas Gift list and organize/make as much as possible.
7.  Halloween Costumes
8.  Put in the Miss Honey stuff in the weekly email book.
9.  Baby announcements!
10.  Thank you gifts to neighbors.
11.  Mending basket
12.  Cut squares for Kathryn's Quilt.  35 sets of 4 5" squares.  Different pinks.
13.  Keep working on Bible Project.  Christmas??  It just said "keep working" which we did.  Not done yet though.  
14.  Go to Manhattan!
15.  Sub Plans for Maternity Leave.
16.  Make Grazie Stocking.
17.  Clean out the toy bucket on the front porch.
18.  Fix the spice drawer.  It was only kind of fixed, and is unfixed again.  

I'd better stop there.  :)    

Giggles

I found this at the farm and it made me laugh and laugh.  

Because, you know, it's what Kermit has been looking for!

Pool Update

So I've been gathering information as I can (though I still haven't been in to talk to anyone official) and I want to remember some things before they fly out of my head

• A good strong automatic cover installed under the lip of the pool to save toes.  The switch should be installed up high on the wall of the pool house.  Kids are NEVER allowed to open the cover themselves.  I get everyone ready, get myself ready, and then they wait while I open the cover.  It's always closed if I am not in the pool.  Keeps out dirt and animals and children.  
• An outdoor shower installed at the same time is a great addition for all sorts of reasons.  
• Someplace with no shade so that any time of the day is good for swimming.  Not hard in our treeless yard-but someday trees may grow, so think ahead.
• "Barracuda" system is cheaper and works well out here.
• Salt water system cheaper to maintain.
• Light colored cover so the pool doesn't heat up too much.
• Mr. Pool comes highly recommended from several sources. 
• Steps are a good place to sit to play with babies, can get corner steps or steps all across one end.  Investigate other shallow options.
• No answers about swimming laps-may be too hard to get a pool big enough to keep you from getting dizzy.  More research there.  

It's nice that talking to people with pools has been encouraging rather than discouraging.   People generally seem to love their pools and find them to be a great addition.  Hooray!  

Anna's Fair 2014

I also wanted to gather up all of the things that Anna did this year in the fair into one place, because I imagine I might want to know this stuff someday.  Like her record book, only online.

Swine-blue for showmanship, blue for pig.  Purchased "Tenzin"- barrow, Spot pig at 4H auction from Eugene Gross, $165.  Feed from Plymell Feeds,

Goat-red for showmanship, red for goat.  Purchased "Kora" -doe, Cross breed at 4H auction from   $  .  Feed from Plymell Feeds, hay from Eldon Alexander.

Visual Arts-State Fair Purple.  Mixed Media drawing of dove with letters, pastel and marker, cheap poster frame.

Crops- Gallon Jar of Wheat-red.  Need to fill up jar a bit more.  MJL thought label too big.

Fiber Arts- Crocheted cotton washcloth-Red.

Foods- Poppy Seed Cookies with Orange Glaze from Grandma Joan's Pillsbury Cookbook.  Blue.
            Apricot Spice Bars from Grammy Rita's recipe.  State Fair Purple

Clothing Construction-

T-shirt dress from Simple Simon -Easy Paperbag Shirt Dress Tutorial .  Actually much harder than the sundress.  Fabric from Mom's stash.  Blue for dress, Blue for showmanship.

Yellow Sundress from Simple Simon - Free Sundress Pattern.  Fabric from Mom's Stash.  Added Yo-Yo's from pinwheels of Mom's.  Grand Champion!  for dress, Blue for Fashion Revue.  

Photography-State Fair Purple for Bubbles.  8x10's printed at Walmart.  

Blue for Swan.

OK!  This should come in handy someday.  :)

         

"Saved for later"

I have a jillion things in my "saved for later" file on feedly.  It seemed like time to admit that later may equal never and just mark all as read.  Here are a few of them that I can't bear to part with.

This post from Simple Simon has a holiday listed for each day of September.  I wish that we were celebrating all or some of them, but so far no.  Here's hoping!

Susan-this one is for you.

This is nice.  Meet the woman who sews a dress for children in Africa every day. 

Back to School Tutorials (oops, missed that one)  I especially like this last pattern.  

Best Art-Inspired Pinterest Boards

I want to share this with Anna sometime.  Sketching tutorial for fashion illustration.  

10 Art Secrets Every Parent Should Know.

A guide to buying craft supplies-probably too late for the back to school clearance, but I thought it was helpful and I wanted to remember it.

Probably my favorite genre in my library-I adore Picture Book Biographies.  This is a good roundup.  I've read half of these, and I'll be looking up some of them to add to our collection.  If nothing else-go check out "Wilma Unlimited".  It is an amazing story.

I just clicked "Clear All".

Livin' on the edge.

Oh, the crankiness

My over-reactor-inator is out of control.  So many things make me cranky.  And then I'm cranky because I don't want to be so cranky!

I can't look at Pinterest because I'm annoyed that people post things about Fall.  Because it's not Fall yet.  It was 102 degrees today.  I should still be swimming.  Fall's not so great.  It's my fourth favorite season, I think, down from third.  What's so great about it?  No swimming, the farmer is working ALL. THE. TIME, and there's no swimming!  Blah blah blah cooler weather and apples and outfits with scarves and boots and pumpkins....barf.  And since when are we decorating front porches?  I'm not even cleaning up toys or pulling weeds anymore.

I can't handle the news, or the paper, or people talking about their opinions on facebook.  Really any kind of opinion at all!  Someone could say that, I don't know, some kind of cookie is the best ever, and I would be annoyed.  Just post nice events from your life.  That's all you're allowed.  Because I'm the cranky boss of the universe.

The girls have two sets of sheets.  One of them is noisy.  I actually took a video of how noisy the sheets are to demonstrate how terribly annoying they are but for some reason it doesn't seem as compelling as it should.  They are REALLY NOISY.

On Netflix, Daniel Tiger only has 2 or 3 stars or something, when it should clearly have five stars because it is wonderful and sweet and helpful and the children love it too.  Everyone else is wrong.


But here's something that made me laugh out loud.

I really do know it's all nonsense and life is beautiful.  So just laugh at me along with me.  And please don't hold it against me if I say something crazy.

Ingleside 8/20/2014

We accidentally drove to the Cabin with Daddy's wallet in the van.  Having absolutely no cash in our lives, he had to raid Jimmy's piggy bank.  

We've been doing a lot of washing sheets and mattress covers.  Looks like Katie's nightly ice water is no longer working for her.  

Grazie at 28 weeks.

Strange mix of old and new technology.  I often tear pages out of my magazines, so that I can remember to look them up later and pin to Pinterest.  

Looky looky look look!  I'm a librarian!

I made raspberry jam, peach raspberry jam, and peach jam, and then I ran out of jars.  It occurred to me as I was making the jam that I was having a ludicrous amount of fun.  Why is jam so fun?

Katie's at that age now where there's no afternoon nap, but she really needs some quiet alone time (with me).  I remember these days with Anna-time for me to do projects in the kitchen so she can play in the sink or with play-doh or paint...  I like this age.    

Cabin Video

That last morning at the cabin, while I was crocheting like mad, Auntie Susu took video of the kiddos.  I cut out *some* of the nonsense-here's a glimpse.



Thanks so much Susan!!!

Blankie 4

Grazie's blankie!  Gray and purple.  

I had the goal of finishing this blankie at the cabin, and though it took leaving a little later, and spending the ENTIRE last morning sitting in a chair crocheting furiously, I did it!

All four bundles of love.  

These blankets take a while, but I don't think I've ever made anything better or more worth it.  

2 year old portraits

 At the cabin I took the good camera and tried to get some 2 year old portraits of Mr. Jimmy.  The sun was a little too harsh, I think.  

But he's awfully sweet.

And I like how well his eyes show up in this one.  

Katie's hair looks suitably wacky-here I asked Jimmy to give her a kiss.  

I like how this one catches how much he adores her.  

Katie's best pictures were action shots of her dancing.  

By the time Anna was ready the shadows were even more harsh.

And then she had funny poses or didn't want to look at the camera, but at least this is a real smile.

And then for all three, I put them in the shade and it didn't work.  I need to learn how to use this camera!  Maybe now that I'm done with other classes I can find a photography class...