A Perfect December Day

 Good Morning,

We had a very nice storm last night. The wind blew the trees free of their leaves. Now the limbs that have been clothed in leaves and now without the reds, and the yellows and browns. They have removed last years clothes and hopefully will have a long winter nap.  Its cold and crisp and the rain washed the air. Which means, fog might be a thing by morning.  I love foggy days best. I love how it smells like a freezer. I love watching the fire and I love having the Christmas tree be the light in the house. I have so many lovely thoughts to think about this year. 

Since we rarely get snow. I just get to imagine making snow angels. The last time it snowed here, it was January 25, 1999. We got 4-6 inches of snow. It was also a blue moon that year. The irony still amuses me. My youngest was two and he was so sure it was going to snow that year, I couldn't believe it when it did. It has only snowed here 28 times since 1937. Compared to about 272 sunny days every year, give or take. 

I cleaned closets yesterday. I have the cutest Christmas flag, that I put up someplace last year. So this year I can't find it. I have cleaned out drawers and cupboards and gone through boxes. Not in anything I have searched. I even went out the the garage and went though boxes out there. You know how rabbit trails are, I even cleaned and straightened my wool and my patterns. I cleaned my linen closet which is really where I store my finished rugs. My quest still failed. I did have the thought, when I said to myself, " I have looked everywhere! and the voice said," if you had looked everywhere you would have found it. Keep Looking!" So of course you know what that means? No hooking was accomplished yesterday. 

So begins December. I did finish decorating for Christmas. I wanted to stop in and write a blog.

Storms to me are really so rare and so exciting. I was up at four-thirty. I looked out the window to see how much rain was falling. Out in the middle of the yard, I saw what looked like in the dark a figure crouched in the yard. I might have thought about going back to sleep, but that woke me straight up. I stared and stared out the window. It finally dawned on me it was the cover to the fire pit. Well of course, I couldn't let it stay out there, so I went out in the rain to get it. I came back sopping wet, but 

it made the coffee taste better and the fire prettier and when I did get dressed, my clothes were even warmer. So I guess you could say, I go a bit crazy in the rain and life is always a matter of perspective. 

Rain in December just makes me very happy. Rain anytime makes me happy. Throw in a bit of wind and I am one happy camper. 

So if you have got this far in a very mundane post. Thank you. I hope you have a lovely day, on this second day of December. 

~Kim~

“December: A month of lights, snow, coziness, and feasts; time to make amends and tie up loose ends; finish what you started and make your wishes come true.”

— unknown

 

On To December

 I do hope all of you had a lovely Thanksgiving. We did, but am I ready to get back to normal. I am already tired of leftovers. I didn't do a turkey this year but chicken quarters. I put them in a brine like I normally do my turkey and they were fantastic. I am glad I decided to have chicken because the kids I have who live here ate earlier in the day at the outlaws. Then they came here for dinner, which they really weren't hungry for but had desert. We had a nice evening anyway just visiting and talking. We did a zoom call with the families that live in other places and our grandchildren who were born after everyone moved got to see cousins they haven't met. Its a odd place but I am so thankful that we can see each other and not have to only wait for letters. All in all it was a nice day. 

We have a golf course very close to here. You cannot believe how huge the flock of Canadian Geese are that live there. Sometimes when I am out driving early in the morning they will be flying around the golf course and there are so many it boggles the mind. I would love to go and watch them some day. You know, I really never wanted to live on a gold course, but I would this one because of the crazy amount of wild life that lives there. I would only want to be on a golf course so I could drive a golf cart around. 

 The trees around here are finally changing color. We have had quite a few mornings with freezing temperatures so the trees are really vibrant and red and yellow. I have enjoyed the color very much. 

speaking of color here is the new wool I bought from Heavens to Betsy. 

Its such nice wool. I think the hardest thing of all is to cut this sometimes. I really do love to sit and look at it. But today I will be cutting it because I need to finish up this cute rug by Cammie Bruce.

 

I am still undecided about the ear. I will keep hooking though and see how I feel about it later. It seems like once I start reverse hooking I end up not stopping until I completely almost start over. I hope to work on this when I get off the computer. 

I also have been making candles and soap. I used to do that years and years ago when I had young kids. Then life gets busy and I stopped. One day I was thinking about those things I used to love to do and I remembered. So I am having to relearn all of this again. Things have changed for the better I think when it comes to making candles and soap. When I made soap a long time ago, I used what ever I could find, old boxes or crates and lined with plastic wrap for soap molds now I have the nicest soap molds to use. I made goat milk and honey soap and then clear soap. Both smell wonderful and are so nice to use.

I love making candles in these tiny ball blue jars. I found some one day I was shopping and I knew what I would do with them. I am so glad that I get to do these things again. It makes my brain feel rested in the same place that dyeing wool makes me feel. Very relaxed and calm. 

So just a little of what I have been doing to keep myself entertained. Three more weeks and I will be on my winter vacation. I have been a leader this year in Bible Study Fellowship. I have also been attending a Bible Study at my church. That has kept me busier than I thought I would be and I have felt like I am working full time. I love it but it does keep me from blogging. 

So as we look from November to December, I wonder at the speed of which 2022 has flown by. 

Thank you for stopping by if you still read this once and a while blog. I really do appreciate it. 

~Kim~

This was my goal I made for 2022. I think I did a pretty good job this year as I set my sights forward and not back. K.

Mid October

 I thought to myself if I don't write some kind of blog, my blog could just disappear. I should keep a notebook of the goings on so I could tell you what I have been doing for so long. 

Peter and Belle got married,

Ron had a car wreck.

Ben and Megan were in a car wreck. (Same week as Ron) All are okay. 

I became a Bible Study leader in Bible Study Fellowship

Then of course, it was hot. My brain just begins to get so tired to the heat, I think I become just a slug. 

That was just what I can think of off the top of my head. 

I have done some rug hooking too. 

Halloween Gothic. Great pattern. Its really a fun rug. The Wool'n Gardener Therese Shick. 

Baskets of Wool by Cammie Bruce. I have wanted to do that pumpkin since the first time I saw it when I was brand new to rug hooking. I still love it so much. You can't really tell it in the picture but the polka dots are different shades of purple. 

I noticed that I have showed you this before, but I still really like this pattern. I know she has others and I might see about hooking them. I got Magdalena's Goat bound. That was a big rug and it took me quite a while. If you can believe it I have no outstanding rugs to be bound. That is a first for me. But I have quite a stack of patterns. What on earth do you ladies do with all of your rugs? I am out of room to store them and I just wondered. I wish I could put them out but I think I could wall paper the walls with as many rugs as I have now. 

I just wanted to write a blog and let you know, yes  I  am still around. Today  I am making candles and soap. Something I have wanted to do all summer so today is the day! It cools off outside and my mind goes into overdrive. 

Have the best day,

Thank you for stopping by,

~Kim~

“The heart of autumn must have broken here, and poured its treasure upon the leaves.” – Charlotte Bates

Late August

 Good Morning.

I hope you have had a lovely summer. August has been busy for me. I got this bright idea to join a Challenge. The challenge was to do something like drying, or canning or freezing or preparing food for each day for the month of August. It was harder than I thought it would be. I made basil vinegar, granola and mixes for brownies and cookies. I made 25 quarts of pinto and black beans. I haven't used my pressure cooker in so long, it was like having to learn a new skill over again. I still have plans to make soup and stew. Of course, I had to straighten up and clean my pantries. I also tried to use what I had on hand so that was interesting to figure out things to cook by what I had in my pantry. It was very interesting and I realized how rusty I have got since I had kids at home. 

I have been working on this when I am not in the kitchen. I still like it and it will look better after it gets steamed. I am hoping by the time I finish it it will not be over 100 degrees. I think we will finish August with every day being over 100. At least its kind of cool in the mornings. 

I am still trying to decide if I want a winter garden. Ron is going to try his hand at growing lettuce using hydroponic kit our daughter gave to him. He has always wanted to grow food like that. He has been getting it all ready. It should be fun to see if we can grow giant lettuce and bell peppers.  I have some giant pots that I might plant some potatoes in and see what happens, maybe some beets. My tiny garden has done okay. Trying to get the soil conditioned and healthy has been interesting. Such bad soil and so sad, it didn't even grow weeds. In the front flowerbeds, we dug out so much construction mess. They just dug holes and filled it with broken roof tiles, broken cement, broken plaster, and other trash. 

My back garden was just as bad, but it has never had anything in it so we have started from scratch. Its so much better from when we moved in and to see it get healthy is really rewarding. To see bugs return.

I am sure I will be able to think of other things I have been doing once I quit writing, but nothing is coming to me. I wish you all of the best. 

Have a nice rest of August, and then my goodness, I can't wait until September. 

Bye for now,

Kim

"Being a mother is learning about the strengths you didn't know you had...and dealing with

fears you didn't know existed." (I really hate when I dwell in the land of what ifs.) (When trials never stop and I am afraid that light at the end of the tunnel is really freight train.)

" God is under no obligation to explain Himself to Me...Imagine that. (My mind blowing thought this last week.) Patsy Clarmont.

Dog Days of Summer

 

One of the things I can keep up on with weather apps on my phone, is what kinds of weather my friends and family are having. Today, its raining is Tucson, with thundershowers this morning. My son in North Carolina, chance of thundershowers this afternoon. As my husband says, we just get shade. We are on day 19 of over 100 degrees. When we start getting at this point in summer, I get happy we are going to start breaking records, and I am so thankful for air conditioning, because I can hook and hook to my hearts content. I finished Magdalena's Goat and got her steamed. It might be awhile before I get her bound though. You know due to the over 100 degree days. 

My goal for this rug was to use only worms from my stash. I thought in my mind that I would make a dent in those bags of worms I had from past projects. I was trying to think like Magdalena might have thought and used up what I had. Nope, I didn't even make a dent. I did dig though bags to find colors like the reds when I would run short but I think they reproduce on their own. I feel like I have even more worms than I did before. I would say that this rug tested me in every area of my hooking ability. I would look at pictures online and stare at the pictures, but try as I might, my own style comes through. Which really is that a thing? I don't know but I never could reproduce what I saw. So about from the neck up on the goat, I just hooked for me. I wanted to get to other rugs for fall. Which I already have a jillion of anyway, but I still like the fall color palate. 

I dyed wool on Wednesday. I think dyeing wool is like unwrapping presents. Every time I pull something out of the dye pot, its a surprise. I was dyeing colors for this rug. 

This is what I am working on now. Halloween Gothic by Therese Shick. I just loved the colors. It says on her Etsy page she is going to be at Sauder in August at Booth #H16. I would love to see her booth if I ever get there. Which I would love to go someday. Here are the colors I dyed.

I just enjoy overdying colors that I have that might have been for another project and taking out and having something brand new. I even went though all of my wool and folded it and straightened everything out. I have love everything about rug hooking. Hooking, designing and dyeing. I love binding too. There is just something so calming to my soul to have a rug to hook. 

I noticed this last week that Cammie Bruce reopened her Etsy shop. Baskets of Wool Studio. I was so happy. I have missed her. I ordered some rugs as soon as I saw her notice. 

That Polka Dot Pumpkin has been on my Pinterest for a long time. I loved it when she first showed it on her blog. I decided it was time I bought it. I bought Love my Black Dog, sort of in remembrance of Sasha. I was going to do it a long time ago, and now I finally have it, but we will see if I can. I just keep hoping this hole in my heart goes away at some point. All those voices in my head that tell me to just buck up and move on and quit being a baby, really are there. When I catch myself, looking for her. 

The house we stayed in in Tucson, had all of this Southwest art in it. I loved this painting and I don't know why I like it but you know not really what I have in my house. But I loved this. I would love to do a rug of it at some point. I just loved the colors and everything in it. It makes me think of those pictures  I would do as a kid where I would tear different kinds of paper to make mountains and glue pictures on it. Did you ever do that in school? I think it would be nice to do a rug like that. Another thing I liked was on I 10 there is this bridge and I love this sun.  

I just think it is so cool. I took pictures of that whole wall as we were driving by at 70 miles a hour. It just makes me happy to see it. 

Well its almost August. I have all of these lovely rug patterns to hook and so many nice things to think about and adjust. Thank you for stopping by. I really thought about doing a Twaddle post, but when I sat down, it ended up being about rug hooking. 

I hope your weekend is lovely, thank you so much for stopping by.

~Kim~

“The mullein had finished blooming, and stood up out of the pastures like dusty candelabra. The flowers of Queen Anne's lace had curled up into birds' nests, and the bee balm was covered with little crown-shaped pods. In another month -- no, two, maybe -- would come the season of the skeletons, when all that was left of the weeds was their brittle architecture. But the time was not yet. The air was warm and bright, the grass was green, and the leaves, and the lazy monarch butterflies were everywhere.”

― Elizabeth Enright 

 

The Desert Southwest

 We are home after a short vacation to see our oldest daughter and her family. We spent one fun filled, lovely time with our grand children. I enjoyed every minute. Of course time goes by so quick and its time to come back home. The monsoon's seem to have followed us, and we got up this morning to cloudy skies and rain. Very rare for July. We rented this lovely house in the hills above Tucson. You had to drive down this rocky, washed out looking road, really more of a track than a road. The whole time we were there, we only saw people once. One morning there were five coyotes in front of the house. Three teenager coyotes fighting and wrestling and a big Mom and Dad. Lots of wildlife. A funny lizard who thought the house was his, who barked at Ron when he came up on the porch one day. 

 That was the house, and it was made out of adobe. It was wonderful and cool. I am so glad to get back to my windows and light. Of course, green. I never think its that green here but driving home yesterday, its really green here. Ron is down there watching me because I am up on the hill exploring. It was higher than it looked from sitting in the living room. We were only 10 minutes from town. 

I don't post pictures of my grands very much just because I don't like Google having pictures of them and using facial recognition software on them. I bought some sewing kits and the older girls loved them. This picture made me so happy to see them all on the couch sewing. I am in the background with the babies. I would sit with them every so often and sew a bit. It was lovely. 

So it was just the best kind of trip. We have seven grand children there five girls and two boys. I always loved this age in my life. There are teenagers to talk to and the middle ones to laugh at the funny things they say, and the babies to rock. I was thinking about my daughter and this time of life really is the best. Nothing better than sitting with them all and just talking while rocking a baby. 

 

 

This was my sewing and hooking partner. Before we left, I knew I had to put her to sleep. I knew she was getting worse, and I knew she was coming to an end. She had cancer and I knew she wasn't going to get better. I haven't been able to blog, because every time I sat down it was all I could think about. This was by far the hardest thing I have done in such a long time. I have cried just going down the dog food aisle. I dreaded coming home to a no dog house. Especially this dog. I have had so many dogs in my lifetime, but never one like this one. That was her chair and we sat together every afternoon like this. I don't think I will get another dog. But we will see. Never in my whole life have I been without a dog. One of my first memories was of my Mom's dog named Chick. She was like a Border Collie, and she guarded me when I was at my grandparents. So having a first memory of a dog, its hard to think of the rest of my life being without one. But, after having the best dog of my life, why mess up perfect. 

 

I didn't get much sewing or hooking done. I hooked 7 loops. That's it. I had so much more to do like going outside to see sun sets and sunrises. To see the monsoon start rolling in about 3:00 and watch the light shows from the porch and finally the rain. I loved watching the birds come on the porch with the lizards to get away from the heat and the lighting and thunder. 

I hope you have a lovely new week. Its so nice to be home. We still have Max and how thankful for that cat. I thought moving was hard, I thought giving up my chickens was hard. But saying goodbye to Sasha was by far the hardest thing ever. Its going to take me awhile I think. 

Bye for now,

Kim

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

---Robert Frost---

 

 

 

Good Ole Summertime

I thought it was time to sit down and blog. I wish that I had something earth shattering to tell you about. Life has been pretty normal. I have been reading and visiting the library. Do you know it still makes me feel as happy going to the library as it did the first time my Mom ever took me to check out books? 

We are going to Tucson to visit our daughter and her family soon. I am so excited to get to see them. It feels like forever. One of my grand daughters loves the books about Ramona and Beezus by Beverly Cleary.  This last week at the library, I checked out Ramona books. I wanted to be able to tell my grand daughter and ask her questions about Ramona. I have always loved children's fiction. In fact, I would say some of the best books I have ever read are children's fiction. Elisabeth Enright, Ralph Moody, L.M. Montgomery. I just look at my book shelves, and I see Laura Ingalls Wilder and Meindert DeJong. I could go on and on, but reading children's fiction is like climbing up on my favorite tree, and sitting high up in its branches and looking down from my perch while deeply living in another world, with the sound of the wind in the leaves and having that vacation to another place, with friends who shaped my life.

 

 I have been making my way though Rosamund Pilcher books this summer. I am reading some of her short stories that originally were published in Good Housekeeping. Very nice, simple stories about nice people. 

The other night I decided to do a google search on my grandparents. Its amazing the things that are on the web now. I found this picture last night.

 

This is my grandparents. I never in my whole life have seen this picture. It was uploaded by someone who I did not know, nor have I ever heard of. That is my grandfather, he is holding my uncle and my grandmother is holding my Mom. That house I believe is my great, great grandparents. I still think my grand father is one of the nicest looking man I ever saw. 

I think this is the house in that picture. My grandmother wouldn't have been born yet and my great, great grandpa is still alive in the picture. On July 14, 1919 he was trying to get the hay in before a thunderstorm hit. As he was going through a fence, lighting struck and traveled down the fence and hit him as he touched the wire. He was killed and when I would visit my great grandmother as a kid, on her dressing table was the change that had been in his pocket with his glasses all welded together. I would pick them up and look at them every time I visited. She lived next door to my grandmother who lived next to us, so I was always in and out of their houses. Which now with my grand children living in different states, I really see how wonderful it was to have my grandparents and great grandparents in my life. 

Lighting like that. Here in California, we never experience weather like they do in the rest of the country. So hopefully when I get to Tucson, it will be monsoon time and I might get to see a little weather. 

I hope as I look around google I will be able to find some more pictures, I have found the graves so now if I went on a search I would know where people are buried. I would like to go visit some of the graves of my greats. 

I hope that this is a great week for you. I hope to get some hooking done this week. I wish you all the best. 

~Kim~

 “The crickets felt it was their duty to warn everybody that summertime cannot last for ever. Even on the most beautiful days in the whole year - the days when summer is changing into autumn - the crickets spread the rumor of sadness and change.” "Charlotte's Web, E.B. White"

(Every night now, we sit outside to hear the crickets song, before we go to bed, to be reminded of the beauty of a summer night in June.) K.

Happy June

 Happy June! 

I love it when summer gets here! I love all of the fresh fruit and the summer flowers. I love how it is warm in the morning and having coffee outside just as the sun peeks over the mountains. My very favorite though, is school getting out. I remember how much fun it was taking my kids with me to run errands and now I am so happy that the young mother's that live around me don't have to get up at the crack of dawn to take kids to school. 

I know maybe you might not have noticed but I was missing for awhile. Google said I violated the terms of service. They locked my blog down and I couldn't get to it. I know that if you have read my blog for awhile, I work really hard trying not to be political or say or write anything else. As I looked around I found that they had changed it so they can see what I watch on You Tube. I do watch political things on there and I made sure  I changed it so they didn't monitor that, but I am sure now they watch what I say on my Gmail. So I guess there are bots that catch words that might be politically incorrect.

Freedom of speech and thought police are real. We are not only living 1984 but also Brave New World. 

We painted our guest bathroom and put in new flooring last week. I was so excited that I have no projects this weekend.

Just fun stuff like weeding the garden and getting back to Magdalena's Goat. I took a little break to work on this rug. Now I have to bind it. Its a cute rug and its been a fun project. 

Our youngest son proposed to Belle this week. She said yes! So the last one of the six will be married. 

I am so thrilled. I feel really blessed. 

 I thought this was a cute picture of them. Her life will never be boring. I just loved this picture. 

 

 

My cactus bloomed last week. The flowers only last one day. I missed taking of the other two, but for the first time there are a second set of blooms so hopefully I will catch them this time. 

I hope you have a lovely weekend. I am so glad summer is here. Since I got my blog taken down, 

I am going to post this picture, just because. 

It tickled me. So if they take me down, at least it will be because I posted something worth taking down.

Hopefully, my blog will stay up, but if I do end up being taken down, you will know why. 

~Kim~

“Happiness is making the most of what you have, and riches is making the most of what you've got.”
― Rosamunde Pilcher, The Shell Seekers