Happy Friday!

After several wonderful days of sunshine and warmth we are expecting rain and fog today. That's okay as those few days have made me feel like I have absorbed the sunshine in my soul and can carry it with me through the cloudy days. I am glad that we spent as much time out as we could this week.

Today will be spent at home. I have some baking to catch up on. On the list for today are whole wheat tortillas, a variety of crackers, and a batch of meatballs. I'll make pitas if I have time and energy.

The picture above shows one of our little rituals around here. We are sharing a green smoothie. I usually make them with several (3) cups of spinach, frozen berries, and water. I just run it in the blender for awhile adding more water if needed to keep it all smooth. Depending on the day, I may add vanilla yogurt and bananas. I just load up whatever is on hand.

Then, I pour it in the glass and grab three straws. Yes, we each have our own color for the straws. Less arguing. It is a race to the bottom of the glass! Lots of kisses happen at the same time as well.

Yesterday I whipped up a blenderful and poured it into a quart-size canning jar. I tucked in our straws and put the lid on the jar and tossed it in my ever-present basket. We enjoyed it next to a fish pond at the gardening center we went to. I think next time I will wait to add the straws until we are ready to drink it as it did make it a bit messier!

It is an easy way to load up a few more servings of fruits and veggies and we all love it. Speaking of fruits and veggies, I picked up some seed packets for this year's garden. I ordered most of my seeds last year from catalogs, but found in mid summer the best gardening place in Denver. Paulino's is amazing. I got my batch of tomato plants there and planted them fourth of July weekend and still ended up with close to 100 lbs of tomatoes.

What else? Feel free to comment on the Jane Austen discussion from yesterday's post. Also, this list of substitutions in cooking from Aspiring Homemaker looks really helpful. I had no idea about some of these! Loved this post from Muthering Heights. I think we'd be friends in real life. Also, I am wishing one of my real friends-who I met through blogging, Janna, a very Happy birthday today!

Hope you all have a wonderful end to the week! Thank you to the other Company Girls for stopping by!

All That's Left

I just finished Northanger Abbey a few moments ago. As I have been reading all the Jane Austen books these last few weeks, I am down to my least favorite, Emma. I cannot think of why I don't like it more, but there it is.

Pride & Prejudice and Sense & Sensibility are always fun to revisit, of course. And I really enjoy Persuasion and Northanger Abbey quite a lot. Though Persuasion and Northanger Abbey are not as popular, or as well read I think them both delightful and highly recommend them.

Mansfield Park is nice though I find Fanny a bit...lacking. I wish she had a bit more spunk. Lady Susan's letters are well written and convey quite a story in fewer words than most Austen stories. My only regret is that there are not more to enjoy once I am done with Emma.

What say you? What of Jane' stories have you read? What do you like the best, or even least? What do you think of Emma?

Friday

Company Girl Coffee 2.19

I must admit to joining in the chat with a cup of tea, instead of coffee. My time to write comes in the afternoon and my coffee is usually a morning thing. So I have filled one of my favorite teapots with vanilla tea. While the bread is rising, I will write for a few minutes. After the loaves are formed and rising again, I will curl up in my favorite corner on the loveseat in the bay window with my new "Victoria" magazine and my teacup and enjoy a few quiet minutes while the boys nap.

I just finished reading "Persuasion" and started "Lady Susan", another Jane Austen story. It is cleverly written though I doubt of it ever being made into a film as it is shorter and written entirely as letters. It is fun though.

I was able to finish up some sewing this morning with still more to do. Nothing exciting, or pretty, just stuff that needs to be done. I prefer craft sewing and being creative to shortening sleeves and sewing covers for machines.

I am buried under laundry today. I usually do it twice a week, but somehow got off schedule and have a lot to do. It's not the most exciting thing, but so necessary.

I went through a tub of old maternity clothes and sorted through them. I'll need to have Sweetheart get the other tubs out this weekend. I was blessed with several bags of clothes last time and some I never needed. It's time to pass the ones I won't wear onto someone else. I am sort of all over the place with clothes right now as the maternity things are swallowing me up and the regular clothes getting snug. It is what it is. And it is a blessing.


It's been a cold, quiet week here in Colorado. Several inches of snow fell yesterday and through the night. It is lovely, but unwanted. More snow is forecast. But snow, or not, Sweetheart and I have reservations for lunch at a tearoom across town.
I am excited for some time with him. We are planning to visit a few of the shops nearby featured in the last "Victoria". Their sizes would not permit a stroller and I would find it difficult to just have the boys roaming free. They are well-behaved, but they are curious and only two and four after all.

Otherwise, we have no real plans for the weekend, but to be together and stay warm. Hope you are all having a wonderful Friday! What do you have planned for the weekend?

Watch This

Can I just say that I love this movie? We bought it in January when everyone was on the mend. I've already lost count as to how many times I've seen it! I've never seen it before, but I think it's wonderful. Of course, one must truly love slow period pieces. This is not an action movie. Jane-ites will adore it and wonder why it took me so long to see it!

Now, for a decent Mansfield Park...

Side note: We recently watched Jane Eyre again and were pleased to see Captain Wentworth as Mr. Rochester. A bit gruff, but an enjoyable rendition nonetheless.
Also, if you haven't seen North & South, by Elizabeth Gaskell, DO! It's truly delightful. The music is hauntingly beautiful. I haven't been able to track down the soundtrack, but I love it. This has nothing to do with the Civil War, and is in fact set in England. I personally think Richard Armitage would make a wonderful Mr. Darcy if they rerereremake Pride & Prejudice. He broods wonderfully!
Do yourself a favor and just buy this:


The Elizabeth Gaskell collection (which we own) contains Wives & Daughters, Cranford and North & South. All three are wonderful stories wonderfully done.
All my guys enjoy them with me. :)

Living Life

I feel like we've been so busy living life that blogging about it has been set aside.
We've been to Berry Patch Farms more times than I can count. It's closer than any grocery store so it is easy to run up the road for eggs and fresh produce as needed. (We live on the far east side of Denver.)
Since I only head to the regular grocery store once a month to stock up on bulk foods and meat it's so great to have something close for the fresh things. Don't know what I'll do when they close for winter! They'll be open until Thanksgiving, but then closed until late spring/early summer.
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We'll try to head to the zoo a few more times before it gets too cold. The Denver Zoo really is nice. We fed the Lorikeets on our last trip there. My Mom played hooky from work and went with us. It was a great day.

They are giving each other kisses in the picture above. Something they do all the time that just melts this Mommy's heart.

Pumpkin loves to see all the animals and Dumpling likes to be pushed along in the stroller eating snacks. I'm not sure he much cares about the animals yet, but he sure likes going along for the ride. When he finishes what's on his tray he starts finishing up whatever Pumpkin has left behind.



We went up to Estes Park two weekends ago just to enjoy an Autumn drive. I wasn't able to get any really good pictures of the color in the mountains, but we had a lovely day. The barn picture at the top of the page was from that drive.

We stopped along the way at the Miller Farms where Pumpkin was able to see a few of his friends. They had painted a bunch of old cars and a truck to look like the characters from "Cars". (In case you hadn't noticed the reoccurring toy in almost every picture of Pumpkin--this boy loves Lightning Mc Queen. He goes everywhere with us from Target to picking up wheat at Nadine's today. If he's not in Pumpkin's hands, he close by!)

They've also got a bunch of old tractors and even a small plane out on display and for the kids to climb all over. Apparently, they have a bunch of other rides and things for the kids, but we didn't actually go inside. We were quite entertained for free just in their parking lot!

When we got to Estes we walked along by the river and found a place to have our picnic lunch. Pumpkin and Sweetheart threw tons of rocks in the river, a favorite pastime of theirs.

After lunch, we headed back down the road until we found some National Forest access signs and drove along the back roads.

Sweet Dreams, Little One.

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Our garden has been actually growing things (besides weeds) this year. Here are some pictures of what we'll be harvesting soon. We're trying to let everything go as long as possible, but it is likely that we'll have a hard frost this weekend.

We've got quite a few Hubbard Squashes which I'm planning to substitute for pumpkin in a bunch of recipes. I think I'll need to do up some Spice "Pumpkin" Butter and more "Pumpkin" Bread and maybe some pies. These things are huge! We've also got more Birdhouse Gourds than there are birds around here.

A few things, I can't even identify. That thing that looks kind of like a peach pumpkin is another type of Hubbard Squash, I think, and I have no idea where the striped thing came from. I only planted the seeds from a squash I bought a few years ago for Pumpkin's baby food. Who knows what happened? I was hoping for pumpkins, but only ended up with one dark green one. Maybe next year's garden will go better!

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I've been reading along quite a few things. I'm doing the Northanger Abbey read-a-long and finished up Pride & Prejudice. I read Persuasion just before that and must say I like it more and more with each reading. It may soon be my favorite Austen book.

I also checked out a bunch of books the other day from the library. I printed out everyone's suggestions and got as many as I could find. If I couldn't find the specific book someone suggested, but found another book by the same other I checked it out. I'm now in the middle of three or four of them. It's good. I'll also take the time to track down some of the titles from other libraries and try to read as many as I can. I really appreciate your ideas and suggestions! Maybe I can get my act together and do some reviews on them. Maybe.

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I made Janna's Curry Chicken recipe yesterday. Oh, yum!! It was a cloudy, cool day here in Denver, just perfect to have something cooking in the crockpot. Do try it yourself! It is soooo good. I meant to set aside one piece of chicken for lunch today with a friend, but forgot to take it out yesterday and it ended up in the Curry Chicken as well. I felt odd serving a guest leftovers, but she didn't seem to mind. Good thing, as it was really all I had! We fed the two older boys noodles and cheese, which made them happy. Dumpling plowed through another good serving of the Curry Chicken. He has good taste!

I had planned to make the Curry Chicken yesterday so that we could enjoy the leftovers tonight before I was to go to the Homecoming football game with Janna and CL. Now, I'm not sure Janna is going and it is awfully cold out. Plus, Sweetheart is likely to be working late so I don't think it will all work out. Besides it is Friday and in our house Friday night is Movie Night and I'd hate to miss that. Last week I asked Pumpkin what, besides "Cars", he'd like to watch. He very matter of factly replied, Cranford." Of course! What two year old isn't fond of Elizabeth Gaskell and BBC movies? We watched "Cranford" and both boys watched with great attention and enjoyment.

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This post was even longer as I had added a bunch of pictures of Sweetheart and I as we finally got to go away for our tenth anniversary celebration last weekend. However, I messed up on the html for the pictures and gave up. Our anniversary itself was the week I miscarried in July. Not a good time to celebrate. We had already planned time away in August, but had to reschedule after my Mom fell. Everything came together though, finally, and we had a delightful time away. Maybe another post will work, besides, I think this one has enough pictures!

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I hope you are having a delightful day, wherever you happen to be. I'm off to make a pot of tea and wash up the dishes from lunch before the boys get up from their naps. I'm going to leave the page to The Button Willow Chronicles open to enjoy her music as I head off to putter around the kitchen. If you've never stopped by TBWC, you're in for a real treat. It's full of wondrous stories and quotes and pictures of all my favorite things. Go on, take a look, just be sure to come back here again to visit soon!

Guess Where We Went Today?

Ok, not a tough thing to guess if you've been reading here at all lately. We met up with some new friends today at Berry Patch Farms. Katie and I connected on-line a long time ago through Sandy's Tea Society. Since then, she's commented here now and again, but today was the first time we've met in person.

She, and her kids, were such a delight to hang out with! We spent some time out in the fields picking raspberries then enjoyed our lunch a the picnic tables under the giant cottonwood trees. The chickens and turkeys and Bacon Bits were all out and about enjoying their picnic lunches as well from all the food the kiddos seem to drop on the ground.

I thought this post would be longer, I've got so much more to share! However, someone has just awakened from his nap, so I must go. Hope you're enjoying this incredible Autumn day!

Too Much Fun to Miss!

Do join in the fun!
Go visit Austenprose for all the wonderful details.
It will be so diverting!

I'll bring the tea...


By the way--I so appreciate all your book suggestions for me. Please, keep them coming!

WWJB?

I was off visiting at Holly's and saw her post asking for favorite Jane Austen Quotes. Too fun! Once I typed mine into her comment box, I thought I might as well make it a posting myself. Besides, I could probably keep on going and would have liked to add a few longer quotes that I love from Persuasion, but didn't want to take up her entire comment section...


This will do for now as I am off to get ready to join Joanne at the House of Commons for an early lunch and tea.



Do feel free to add your own favorite quotations in the comments as well!



"Elinor agreed to it all, for she did not think he deserved the compliment of rational opposition." (S&S)


"A woman especially, if she have the misfortune of knowing anything, should conceal it as well as she can." (NA)


"It would be mortifying to the feelings of many ladies, could they be made to understand how little the heart of man is affected by what is costly or new in their attire; how little it is biased by the texture of their muslin, and how insusceptible of peculiar tenderness towards the spotted, the sprigged, the mull, or the jackonet. Woman is fine for her own satisfaction alone. No man will admire her the more, no woman will like her the better for it. Neatness and fashion are enough for the former, and a something of shabbiness or impropriety will be most endearing to the latter. But not one of these grave reflections troubled the tranquillity of Catherine." (NA)


"Better to be without sense, than misapply it as you do." (Emma)




and of course----


"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife." (P&P)

Note: Edited to add links. There are some more fun quotes in the Comments-check them out!

Also, the above graphic was found here.