Good Morning

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the day the LORD has made.  We will rejoice and be glad in it.
Even on the days when rejoicing is harder.
(Nothing's wrong this morning.  Just a thought.)

Mixed Up Morning

poppy in the early light

I was out walking this morning early.  I've been getting up earlier and earlier to walk.  It's so beautiful around here.  I can walk and walk for miles and miles just listening to the birds and thrilling at all the colors of green there are. 
It's rare to see another human or vehicle.  For someone born and bred in the city, it's an amazing thing.
I feel like I am becoming a part of this place.  I am seeing and absorbing so much. 
Some mornings are still cold and yesterday rain threatened most of the walk, but I press on.  The other morning I was up early enough to complete a six or seven mile walk and still get home in time to make breakfast.  That was a long walk.
This morning was funny though.  I was walking along and heard a lamb call out.  Looking around, all I saw was a horse walking towards me.  No sheep in sight. 
A few moments later on the other side of the road, a cow mooed.  What did I see?  Just a dog. 
It was like one of those old toys where you pull the string and the arrow spins around, points to an animal and makes that animal's sound.  Only all the sounds were off and animal or two. 
Of course, it is also like looking at animals with Cupcake who barks at horses and moos for almost everything else.  Well, except the chickens.  That girl loves her chickens.

Hello Friends

We are on day three of no sunshine. This picture was obviously not taken this morning. On the up side, our home feels so cozy with the pumpkin spice candle burning. It really does cheer up the breakfast table.

I'm feeling a bit lost this morning as my plans changed. I was planning on having a friend over for the morning, but she had to cancel. I was going to fix us brunch with a ham quiche and a tomato with herb cream cheese tart.

Now that seems like a lot for just me. The boys are happily enjoying their toast with honey bear & yogurt with raspberries. They do like quiche though, too. It's become my default dinner when what I planned hasn't defrosted, or I've just run out of time.

Last evening found me outside covering up as much as I could in the garden and picking anything close to ripe. We're forecast for snow. The lows are listed as 34 degrees which is just too close to freezing for me. I'm hoping this will pass without a freeze and that the warm weather will kick back in. I've got a delicious pile of produce to work on today. One watermelon, a pile of pickling cucumbers-cause we need more pickles-our purple carrots, tomatoes both red and yellow, peas, zucchini and two okra pods. What do you do with two okra pods?

I have hundreds of tomatoes still out there too green to want to pick. The first of my yellow tomatoes were ripe and so I picked some of those. I was thinking they'd be beautiful layered with all the red tomatoes for a tart. Sprinkling a bit of chopped basil on top would be lovely as well. Hmm...maybe I'll make something up with them later today for dinner.

I had Bunco with my lady friends last night. It was fun. I won, so of course it was fun! Our group also does mini gifts for certain rolls and so I came home with money a some darling Autumn cookie cutters, as well as a ceramic coffee cup with lid and one of those things to keep from burning your hands. It looks like a Starbucks cup without the logo. The lid and sleeve thing are made from silicone.

The box says you can save the world by using this cup. Hah. There's only one way to save the world and a cup isn't it. It is however a nice fit. I'm not bothering with the lid and sleeve today, but those will be nice when I'm out. I've missed having a comfortable cup since I dropped my favorite one on the concrete a few months ago.

Maybe the boys and I'll will make some cookies this morning to test the new cookie cutters. I think we need to do something fun on this gloomy day. I'd never survive living in Seattle that's for sure. (Hi to Carrie in Seattle! I miss you!)

Well, the boys are done eating and it's time I start. Blessings to you all. Thanks for all your kind comments on the last post. The encouragement is so nice.

There are so many things on my heart and mind I want to write about, but I'm still trying to sort them all out. That's about impossible when the boys are up and about. I've been thinking a lot about friendships and mothering and life in general. Good things, but some of which leave more questions than answers.

Wishing you all a bit of sunshine no matter the weather!

Morning Ritual

Garden Salad Fixings & Flowers

Pumpkin and I have a new morning ritual. While Dumpling is still sleeping we head out to the garden to see what is ready to pick. Yesterday we brought in quite a haul! We'd been out of town for four days and came home to quite a quantity of zucchini. They were giants, each able to make several loaves of zucchini bread. I took a bunch with me to Bunco last night to share.

We also gathered a basketful of pickling cucumbers. They were too little to pick on Thursday, but by Tuesday looked like small zucchinis. I've also got a boatload of beets. I'm hoping to pickle both the beets and the cucumbers today or tomorrow. We've been picking snow peas as well, but Pumpkin has those all eaten before we get inside.

My Italian Rose beans are looking great! I need to look up how to tell when they are ready to pick. I want to eat some fresh, but dry the rest for winter. Also, the edamame exploded. They aren't quite ready, but will be later this week I think. So far we've only had one tomato, but it was delicious and there are A LOT more coming.

It's so exciting to me to see all of these wonderful things growing were there had been nothing before! The melons are growing well, too. I just hope and pray the weather holds long enough to have everything ripen. Even the grapes are doing well though there aren't very many of them. For the first year-I'm thrilled.

This morning we picked more peas and a zucchini. We ate some beans to see how they're doing. I picked lettuce for today's salad and all sorts of herbs--mint, lemon balm, basil, dill, and savory as well as some nasturtiums for color and zip. I also pulled an onion and noticed the corn has tassels. We just might get a few ears yet. All in all, in spite of the late start and crazy weather we're doing really well.

Now it's time to make lunch for a neighbor who is coming over and plan the menu for the rest of the week. Yesterday was spent unpacking and doing laundry and basically getting everything back to normal. I also spent hours working on the body products to have ready for the the ladies at Bunco who wanted to buy them.

Today is a more relaxed day. I was planning on some Curry Chicken Salad for lunch with a regular salad from the garden. My neighbor just called and said she was steaming fish to bring over. This could be an interesting meal. :) I think I'll probably steam some rice and pick some Swiss Chard which I use in place of the Bok Choy I love, but couldn't seem to get to grow this year. Maybe I should use the chicken in a Thai Noodle Soup instead of the Curry Chicken Salad. Decisions, decisions...

I'm hoping later to make up some zucchini bread and see if I can get some of the canning done. I hope you all have a lovely day as well. I'm alos really wanting to do some sewing. Never thought I'd type that in my lifetime, but things change.

Monday Morning!!

The coffee is percolating on the stove this morning. Gramma's Pyrex percolator is still going strong! It smells so good. I'm looking forward to pouring a cup in just a few minutes.

Sweetheart did such a fantastic job cleaning the basement that I was able to easily go down there and work out this morning. Well, it was easy once I dragged myself out of bed! He even loaded Superchick onto an mp3 player so I have my workout music. The Body for Life (BFL) program alternates three days of weight training and three days of aerobics with the seventh day a *free day*/day of rest. Today was upper body weight training. Done! I'm not sure, however, that I'll be able to lift that cup of coffee.

Doing BFL also has you eating six small meals of healthy proteins and carbohydrates as well as drinking a ton of water. Four glasses already done. I am wide awake now and ready to go for the day. It's time to go get the monkeys out of bed. Don't worry--this won't turn into a BFL Blog. If you're not a fan of BFL, that's fine, but it does work for me. I'm only posting about this as a way to help hold myself accountable and encourage someone else I know as she was mentioning starting up.

We're off to the library after breakfast (Scrambled Egg White Burrito) this morning to pick up Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell. We recently bought the BBC movie and LOVED IT so I'm looking forward to reading the book. I loved her Wives and Daughters both the book and the movie.

Have great day!

Good Morning!

Mmm! Pumpkin Muffins are yummy!

We love you Grandma! We'll miss you. Have fun in Texas!

We're all excited here. Today is the day Janna and her kiddos are coming over to play. This will be our first time to really meet--not counting recognizing each other in the lobby at FCA! Thanks, Joanne, for sharing your friends with me!