And Now Back Home

 

After a week in Arizona, we are finally home!! Our new grand baby, Sophie came on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Mom and baby are doing fine. She doesn't look like she weighs eight pounds but she does. Here is when she came home and the kids got to see their new baby sister.

 

Sophie and Mom came home on Thanksgiving just in time to eat Thanksgiving dinner. Which as meals go, not my best. For one thing never try to bake pies, when your daughter has just had a baby. I spilled the pumpkin all over the kitchen, the cabinets, the floor and me. I managed to nail the oven too. I got every thing cleaned up and had the bright idea to try for a banana cream pie. That one boiled over and nailed the stove top, the burners and the inside of the stove top. I had to clean that up. Then came the cranberry sauce, which I got all of the places I missed with the pies. I got the walls the top of the oven and the counter tops. Then of course, I spilled the banana cream pie in the refrigerator, so all of her appliances were given a bath by me. I really was ready to throw in the towel. We won't talk about the turkey.

 

We went to the park. I loved watching Grandpa with the baby, She wanted to do every thing, "by self." I just didn't take as many pictures as I thought I would. There was always something going on. We had a hotel room so the kids could spend the night with us. We had lots of adventures. I really like Arizona. The air is glorious. I did have to laugh. It was about 70 degrees. Ron and I went around in shirt sleeves. The people who live there were all bundled up like it was really cold. In the desert it is all rocks and sagebrush and cactus. Coming home, to our house, the trees are all filled with fall colors. It is cold like it should be and cloudy and I am so glad I live here. As Ron said, we needed a visit by the adjustment bureau. I think we got one. Going through L.A. on Black Friday, is white knuckle driving. I can't even imagine what it will be like this weekend.

So being home is wonderful. My own bed is fantastic. Sophie is our ninth grand baby. Our daughter is so good. I feel just thankful and well, pretty wiped out.

I hope all of your Thanksgivings were wonderful too.

~Kim~

In the sheltered simplicity of the first days after a baby is born, one sees again the magical closed circle, the miraculous sense of two people existing only for each other, the tranquil sky reflected on the face of the mother nursing her child. ~Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Gift from the Sea, Chapter IV: Double-Sunrise

Dreams and Stuff

 

When I first started blogging, I knew that My Field of Dreams would be the name. I have spent so many hours in my life staring at what it is in reality a pasture. I have always been rather cautious about dreams though. Dreams can be a good thing, but sometimes to call someone a "dreamer," can mean someone who thinks of things and never follows though. Or a person who doesn't figure in the cost of dreams. Dreams can sometimes turn into an illusion, and all of a sudden, a dream becomes like sand through an hourglass.

 

I think I would call myself a careful dreamer. I try not to dream too deeply. Sort of keep my feet on the ground kind of dreamer. Ron has been reading a book called Put Your Dream to the Test. by John C. Maxwell. I have been busy hooking my hands off, so he reads and he will read me parts that interest him. 

Last night he read me something I had to share with you today. As I thought it was something that distilled into what I would long to be. ( If I wasn't too lazy or too scatterbrained about half the time.) 

 " Let's face it: Dreams don't work unless you do...Achieving a dream will require hard work To succeed you'll need to do more---more than you want, more than your competition, more than you think you're capable of, you must live the words of William Arthur Ward:" 

" I will do more than belong---I will participate.

I will do more than care---I will help.

I will do more than believe---I will practice.

I will do more than be fair---I will be kind.

I will do more than forgive---I will forget.

I will do more than dream---I will work.

I will do more than teach---I will inspire.

I will do more than earn---I will enrich.

I will do more than give---I will serve.

I will do more than live---I will grow.

I will do more than suffer---I will triumph." 

 

I thought that it was such a profound statement to life. There has been so much going on the the world, I know that if I can't  even change me, how can I possibly change the world. There is such negativity all around, day in and day out, that I find myself wanting to not add to it but to rise above it. I want to be as that little song says, that I sang to my babies, " This little light of mine, I'm  going to let shine, let shine, let shine, let shine." Just a little light that shines in the darkness today. Because really, I do want to triumph!! 

Just some thoughts this morning, I hope you have a lovely fall day, filled with lots of laughter and love and warmth. 

~Kim~

"There are two things to aim at in life; first, to get what you want; and after that, to enjoy it, Only the wisest of mankind achieve the second."

---Logan Pearsall Smith---

A Wintery Morning

 

Happy Monday! We have a wonderful cold, and wintry morning here today. You can tell it is snowing in the mountains as the temps have dropped so much since the sun came up. We had such a nice rainy Sunday.  We burned a fire, first one in the stove this year. It has been a long time since we have had real November weather.

I finally finished Be Ye Thankful, well almost, it needs to be bound. It would make a nice rug for the floor, but I don't think I could put in on the floor. It is a very nice size.

Pattern Spruce Ridge adapted from original by Notforgotton Farms.

When I bought the pattern three years ago, I had just started hooking rugs. It was so overwhelming to me to ever think I could do something this big. Not that it is finished, I can say, " I did it!"

 

This is going to be a short post today. There are men out in my driveway, jack-hammering and making all kinds of noise. It makes me rather scatter-brained. I just wanted to check in and wish you a lovely week.

Bye for now,
~Kim~

Keep your eyes open to your mercies. The man who forgets to be thankful has fallen asleep in life.
Robert Louis Stevenson

Talking of Books

 

I have had this post going around in my head for days. I guess in part I blame L.M. Montgomery. When I read her I always want to write and use big old fashioned words. I am about halfway through Anne of Windy Poplars. As I was reading today, I was reminded of how much I wanted to be like Anne. She went out of her way to be a servant, she saw the good always in self centered people and she was always positive. It is good to go back and read books, that are the fabric of my life. Without the influence of these books who knows where or who I would be.

Here are my Anne books. I had to work hard to save the money for these books. I made 5 dollars a week, cleaning house and washing dishes. Then I had to plead to get someone to take me to the book store. It took me an entire year to buy these. They weren't in paper back at the bookstore in the mall.

 

They are getting worn now. Old friends. Since I was 12 years old.  I still wonder if I had six kids it because Anne did.(Anne of Ingleside)

 

I always wanted to be Jo. Still to this day, I want to ask Louisa May Alcott, (even though I loved Mr. Bhaer,) Why did she not marry Laurie? Even being as old as I am, I still think she would have been happier with Laurie. I never could like Amy. Even before the little hussy took her trip with Aunt March to Europe and came home married to Laurie. I think Marmee has the best daughter talk to Meg I have ever read. Always I have wanted to be as wise and giving as Marmee, kind and sweet as Beth. As beautiful as Meg and a good writer as Jo. I always wanted the kind of house that Jo has in Jo's Boys though. Filled to the brim with life.

Laddie and A Girl of the Limberlost by Gene Stratton Porter came to me via my grandmother. She felt unloved in her girlhood. She often told me often not being loved by her mother as Eleanor was not loved by her mother, Mrs Comstock. She identified with that book. Reading it made me want to learn and to collect moths and take photographs. I wanted to roam the woods and find the beauty there. Laddie came later, but I still read it every year, because it is about Gene Stratton's family (loosely as I think how she wanted it to be). She was the last of twelve children, it is a lovely story. Who knows if I might have had 12 children had I read it sooner. ( Joking, sort of)

 

   I must say something about Christy. After my Dad remarried, he got the bright idea to load us all in the back of a borrowed station wagon, and drive across country via Route 66. In the hot summer with a bunch of kids who didn't really like each other and were not really interested in being the Brady Bunch. We stopped at every shop, tee-pee, snake pit and we saw every two headed calf, and meteor. If it had a sign we stopped.

 In one of those shops on the way home, I was roaming around and I came to a stand of paper back books. I saw one called Christy. I read the back and I was hooked. I don't remember much about the ride home, because I had been transported back in time to the Appalachians. To 1912 in  rural Tennessee.

 I was crushed by the heartbreaking story Christy heard from Alice Henderson. I still someday want to make the quilt that Fairlight Spencer saw outside her window in the night sky. That became part of me too, my life was never as hard as those women who lived in the Cove. When ever I dye wool, I wish I had a stand of indigo to make blue. I love the words of that book. The words continue to be music to my soul. I also loved Catherine Marshall very much.

 

I guess trying to whittle it down to books I love is trying to say which kid is your favorite. These are books that are deep inside and the words and thoughts that formed me. The wisdom from authors that God used to help that little girl who was struggling to make sense of a world, that didn't make sense. Anne, Jo, Elenor and Christy, overcame odds so great and hard. They rose above circumstances that they found themselves in and I know I loved them because they let their suffering be for good. It made them sweeter instead of bitter.

Books have played an important role in my life. They continue to do so. Thank you for coming along with my remembrances about my friends.  I always have stacks of books sitting around. I always imagine as I walk by the little voices shouting, "read me, read me!"

Thanks for coming along,
~Kim~

“And whether rich or poor, well or ill, happy or sad, books can be a refuge, they do not change with changing circumstance, they are the open highway to yesterday, today and tomorrow wherever you will to travel.”
― Gladys Taber, Stillmeadow Daybook

A Happy Morning

 

This has been the most perfect- Fall-November-in-years-and years! I was walking around with my camera this morning. Do you ever stand and see something that makes you so happy to be alive? I stood and looked at these mums with tiny rain drops still left on them. I just felt so thankful to be right here right now. Every where I looked diamonds were sparkling in the trees, and in the grass. The clouds were over the mountains, as cold as my hands were, I knew it was snowing up there.

This weekend Ron and Peter worked and worked trimming this pepper tree.

Can you see how pretty it looks now? It grew so much this summer it looked like a giant bush. I always think that when I decorate for Christmas, one year, I would really love to decorate the trees in front with white lights. As pretty as it looks now, maybe this is the year.

 

Halloween weekend, I planted around 200 bulbs. So in all of my flowerbeds, I have points coming up. As I was planting each bulb, I kept thinking of how each bulb is a tiny miracle I can hold in my hand. I can put it in the ground, cover it up and then on the darkest days there will be a surprise to brighten my world. Each one contains just a bit of magic. Not to mention they smell wonderful.

 

I don't remember in past years to have so many red leaves. All of these trees Ron planted from seed. Now this year, they are big enough to be planted out in the front. In my minds eye, I think how pretty they will look someday, against that white fence. We are going to put in a tree screen. With the traffic on the road, I feel like an animal in a zoo.

 

I loved the color on this Japanese Maple. I loved the red with the brown.  It is one of my favorite colors.

Like this mum that is getting ready to open.

I really like that color too. With that one stray petal.

This morning, I let my chickens out for a bit. I was going to let them hang out for awhile. Sasha had another plan. She has decided she doesn't like them out in the yard anymore. Every time I  turn my back on them the next thing she has rounded them all up and put them back in the pen. This morning I managed to have my camera.

I didn't get any more pictures, she put these up and then went around to the other side of the yard and got the scragglers up by the house. This is her job and she is very serious about it. The funny thing is the hens don't seem to mind.

It is just a very fine morning. I wanted to show you the last part of that rug.

This is all I have left. I was looking at it after I had hooked and hooked yesterday. It dawned on me, that I have as much left on this rug as much as a whole rug I do normally. It doesn't look like that from the picture but it is a bunch. I will finish it this week, the light is at the end of the tunnel.

Thank you for visiting today.

~Kim~

“Are ye the ghosts of fallen leaves, O flakes of snow, For which, through naked trees, the winds A-mourning go?”
― John B. Tabb

Snow Pictures

 

Snow Pictures! Yes you read that right. Peter does something different every day at his job. This week they (him and his boss) drove up to the highest elevation mountain for around here. It is called Breckenridge.  We are having another snow storm starting tonight, well not us because we are in the valley. The mountain areas. We might get more rain though.

 

Anyway they drove and drove until they got to this little dirt road. Until they reached the top. They had some work to do up there. The next time they go, they will have to take the snow cat for a hour or a hour and a half. I guess they go once a month. I just can't imagine getting paid to go do fun stuff like that for a job.

 

We didn't have snow last year, so this just amazes me so much.  You know how you read books about the year there was no summer? I think of the Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder. It was 1816
I think we have just gone through 4 years of no winters. So these snow pictures are just magical to me.

 

If you look through that empty place on that hill beyond the trees, you can see the valley. I love that fresh snow with just a few foot prints and tracks.

 

Look at the icicles!! Already! I wish I could have taken pictures from my house that day because you could see the snow on the very tip top of Breckenridge. It was so nice to see it. Today it is too hazy to see it.

I am sure I won't be so excited about Peter getting to go there when they have to travel up and back in the snow cat. Now I of course, wish I could tag along. I wonder if I can tell Peter to ask if they can have a "Bring Your Mom to Work Day." Next time they go. It seems like such a nice job and a nice place to work. They have some kind of party every Friday. This last Friday was Smores day.

 

I want to thank Peter for letting me post his pictures. It was terrible the way I browbeat, begged and pleaded. just waited patiently for these pictures.

I hope you have a wonderful day.

~Kim~

“Is it snowing where you are? All the world that I see from my tower is draped in white and the flakes are coming down as big as pop-corns. It's late afternoon - the sun is just setting (a cold yellow colour) behind some colder violet hills, and I am up in my window seat using the last light to write to you.”
― Jean Webster, Daddy-Long-Legs ( A lovely book, that and Dear Enemy)

A Foodie Post

 

I know I said I wouldn't inundate you with food recipes and here I am doing a whole post on food. I have really enjoyed cooking this week. I had bought a new crock pot in September. It is so much nicer that the one I had which was at least 30 years old, and I would have kept using it but trying to rig things up for a lid was getting trying. Using my old cookbooks and figuring out how to make them crock pot friendly has been fun.

I will share some of  the food I have made this week.

One of my new favorites followed very loosely from a cookbook is called Teriyaki Chicken.
I will give you the recipe I made up for my crock pot.

2 Lbs chicken breast cut in strips
corn starch
2 eggs beaten
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup honey
1 T. sherry
1 clove garlic minced
1t. ginger.

My chicken was still partially frozen, so I cut it into strips. I put corn starch in a zip lock bag and dipped the chicken first in beaten eggs, with a little water added. Then dropped them in the corn starch and once they were coated I put them in the crock pot. I made the soy sauce/honey mixture and poured that over the chicken in the crock pot. I cooked it on low about four hours. About 30 minutes before I served it I made some more honey/soy-sauce mixture and poured it over the chicken and turned it on high. I am on this brown rice kick right now and I can't get enough of it. So I made brown rice and broccoli. There wasn't a scrap left.

I won't promise recipes on all of these. Here is a list of the food I made this week.
I made Chicken Parmesan Casserole.  Totally yummy, I never have thirds on anything and I did this.

Crispy Baked Onion Rings-wonderfully good, but too much fiddly work. I got this recipe from Sally's Baking Addiction   
She is my favorite go to gal for new and yummy food.

Orange Cranberry Bread (with honey) 

I love just about anything with cranberries. Honey and orange. I had made Banana bread from my over ripe bananas from my Betty Crocker cookbook that I got for a wedding present. I think that cookbook will always be my favorite because everything just turns out.

It is not to say, I didn't have flops. I made a really yucky dinner, that I wished I had called out for pizza before I made them eat it. It was a recipe called Biscuit-Topped Beef. Icky!!

I think this might end up being a flop, I am still undecided.

Bacon Jalapeno Popper Cheesy Bread

Due to the copyright on this recipe, you will have to go check out the blog yourself.   I don't want to get in trouble. This is a recipe that sounded really good to me, but well, I think it might make better muffins with soup or chowders. That is my image, by the way.

Anyway, that is this week. Tonight we are having pork chops, scalloped potatoes and home made applesauce. Ron requested a pumpkin pie. I can maybe count on one hand how many times we have had pork. I have mentioned once before how my brother had 1000 sows. SO-MANY-HOGS!! It has taken me almost 40 years to eat bacon.

It is just cool enough, that when I turn on the oven to cook, it keeps the house nice and warm. Such a perfect time of year. Plus, I know I mentioned this, but I love my new crock pot.

I hope you have a wonderfully lovely day,
~Kim~

“Indian summer comes gently, folds over the hills and valleys as softly as the fall of a leaf on a windless day. It is always unexpected. After a sharp cold spell, we wake one morning and look out and the very air is golden. The sky has a delicate dreamy color, and the yet unfallen leaves on the bravest trees have a secure look, as if they would never, never fall.”
― Gladys Taber, Stillmeadow Seasons

Odds and Ends

 

I love Fridays! Don't you? What are your plans this weekend? I hope to get some more outside work done this weekend. Maybe some hooking. Lots of cooking. I am having such fun cooking right now.

I thought I would share that big old Give Ye Thanks rug. I worked on it off and on this week. My goal was to have it finished by Thanksgiving, I don't know if I will make it though.

Pattern by NotForgotton Farms-Spruce Ridge

I liked the bird.

I just need to get with it. It is so big it is going to take me a bit to get it bound. I have so many other things that I would like to do some more things. I got a Christmas pattern, so I need to finish up my fall rugs.

Pattern from Old Tattered Flag

It looks like a fun pattern to hook. I hope you have a lovely weekend. I have a whole bunch of things I want to bake today, so I am going to be playing in the kitchen.

Thank you so much for stopping by today,
~Kim~

“But housekeeping is fun. It is one job where you enjoy the results right along as you work. You may work all day washing and ironing, but at night you have the delicious feeling of sunny clean sheets and airy pillows to lie on. If you clean, you sit down at nightfall with the house shining and faintly smelling of wax, all yours to enjoy right then and there. And if you cook—that creation you lift from the oven goes right to the table.”
― Gladys Taber

Finally- November!

 

Oh Happy Day!!! Guess What? You will never guess so I will tell you. I got caught out in the rain!!! Isn't that awesome! I went out to feed and water the chickens and next thing I know, I am hiding under tree branches because the rain is coming down so much. I just had to walk back in and get soaking wet, and I actually got cold!!!

I decided I am a West Coast girl, in a East Coast body. I want cold and rain and snow and all of that fun stuff you write about on your blogs. This year, my goodness, we had nine months of hot weather. One of my friends actually said, "she was so glad this H-E double toothpicks of a summer was over. " She said that word that way and I thought it was so cute.)  Waiting until November to be able to breathe deeply is a long time.

 

I can say, that I think I got the last of what I wanted to get done outside this weekend. I got my clean flowerbeds planted with tulips, hyacinths and daffodils. Lots and lots. I moved and replanted my Iris bulbs.
We got the front lawn dirt reseeded with rye grass. It will be nice to look out on green instead of brown dirt. Hopefully, so come on El Nino.

I didn't hook at all. Nor sew. Today though, I am going to draw out rugs. It is a good day to be in side. Oh, I have to show you a picture of something I made Friday night.

Warm Skillet Bread and Artichoke Dip

 This is the best stuff ever. In fact, I would say if you like artichokes like I do, it is extremely dangerous.
Not to mention just a fun recipe to make. Here is the place I got the recipe from.

After living on summer food, for so long, it is so very, very nice to cook and play in the kitchen again.
I promise to not inundate you with food recipes. Even though, I am thinking far more about food and cooking than anything else.

Have a lovely day, where ever you are,

~Kim~

“Perhaps, after all, romance did not come into one’s life with pomp and blare, like a gay knight riding down; perhaps it crept to one’s side like an old friend through quiet ways; perhaps it revealed itself in seeming prose, until some sudden shaft of illumination flung athwart its pages betrayed the rhythm and the music, perhaps . . . perhaps . . . love unfolded naturally out of a beautiful friendship, as a golden-hearted rose slipping from its green sheath.” 

 

 

 L. M. Montgomery.