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Saturday, August 28, 2010

Dancing with the Stars

I finished Mallaika's birthday quilt with plenty of time to spare. Her birthday isn't till October 15th when she will be five years old. I sure miss her and can't even imagine what she is like now --it's been a year since I've seen her (and her mom and dad) -- I'm hoping they will come visit before the end of the year.

Mallaika's favorite colors are pink and purple, she loves to dance, and she is all about ballerinas, princesses, and fairies. To appreciate this, you have to understand she is the daughter of parents who had her teething on Legos and playing with toy trains before she had a doll.


Logan hand-dyed the fabric I made this pillowcase from -- I love its aurora-like blending of colors.
Tooth fairy envelopes adorn the hem of the pillow case. She will probably put this to use within the next year.

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Makes Scents

I love the smell of:

  1. Sunscreen and chlorine
  2. Fresh-brewed coffee while I'm still lying in bed
  3. Baby's breath
  4. Freshly-mowed lawn
  5. New books
  6. Garlic and onions browning
  7. Sweaty sunshiny boys
  8. Gardenias
  9. Clean sheets
  10. Old Spice
  11. Bakeries
  12. Summer rain
What did I leave out?

Thursday, August 19, 2010

What a Difference Four Years Makes!


August, 2006


August, 2010

Four years from now, Ben will be starting his second year of college and Logan will be entering his last year of high school. Logan hates it when I insist on taking photos, Ben humors me. I love looking at the changes in them (and in me) as the years unfold.



Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Still doing that Veggie thing

This week I'm challenging myself to use up the vegetables in as few dishes as possible (except the peppers; I'll freeze some of them and use them all winter). Ben and I drove out to the farm to pick up our share this afternoon. And, as usual, the smell of freshly picked vegetables mingled with a little bit of "clean" dirt, filled the car. I couldn't resist the smell and grabbed a few leaves of peppery fresh arugula to snack on during the ride home. This week's haul included kale, arugula, lettuce, beets, carrots, onions, peppers, summer melon, butternut squash, Thai basil, red and yellow cherry tomatoes.
Tonight our lasagna meal was enhanced by this salad with farm-fresh lettuce, red onion, carrot, red tomato, baby yellow cherry tomatoes, grated carrot, and diced red bell pepper. Tomorrow a crock pot meal will use some of the others. I plan a potato salad later in the week with some unusual ingredients. I'll show it to you when I get to it.

School starts the day after tomorrow. The boys had a "farewell to summer" sleepover last night. Because we didn't take a vacation trip this summer, the boys have had a sleepover once a week, but now it's back to the old grind.

Monday, August 16, 2010

Not Ordinary

Yesterday I lost a hearing aid. My ears are kind of small and I don't have much space behind them and it's hard to find room for both my glasses stem and a hearing aid, so it just fell off unnoticed sometime during the day. I was pretty upset and looked everywhere, carefully sweeping all the floors, checking out the furniture, in the bed, etc. This morning, it was still on my mind and I was struggling over whether I should replace it ($1500) or try to get along with just one. While in deep deliberation, my eyes wandered over to the bathroom sink and spotted the missing hearing aid. I felt like I had conjured it up! Magic!

An empty coffee bag greeted me this morning and I was faced with the choice of a caffeine fast or a trip to the store. By ten o'clock, I was ready to give up the fasting notion, and headed for the car. I turned the key in the ignition and the response was the silence that can only mean the battery is dead. I had left the light on when I was looking for my hearing aid last night. Called triple A and was up and running in about an hour. Because it was getting on towards noon and I still had not had my caffeine, I decided to make a run through McDonald's and try a coffee-infused frappé.

When I got to the window to pay, the girl leaned out and smiled at me saying, "the lady in front of you just paid for your meal!" Magic!

I feel like today is charmed and like a person who has been granted three wishes, I must be very careful what I wish for. So, I plan to go gently and consciously through the rest of the day watching for more little bits of magic.

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Last Gasp of Summer

The heat wave has had us gasping for relief for six weeks. So, we headed for the mall and yearned for autumn. Back to school shopping was minimal: new boots for me(no, I'm not going back to school, they were on sale and irresistible), shoes and socks for the boys and a backpack for Logan. Slow to accept change of any kind, Ben is content with his familiar old back pack. He only tolerated new shoes because little was left of the old ones and a nail was poking the bottom of his foot, making marching uncomfortable. School starts this week, along with football and band practice.
The band is proud of their new trailer for hauling equipment -- the white monster on the right is the new one, while the old one sits on the left, looking very small by comparison. They have a driver to pull it to all their functions, so they should be the grandest band in the land, or at least in the parking lot.

We celebrated the last weekend of summer vacation by taking in Holly's new show in Branson. She now appears in " '50's at the Hop" at a new venue with a dinner show. So, with German foreign exchange student, Lars, and his host parents, Amanda and Ash, Ben, Logan, and I, were entertained by Holly and her troop after enjoying our dinner. And she still cuts our hair! What a gal!!!

The show rewarded the boys for their labor earlier in the day. Here they unload Jerry and Krista's washer curbside at their new house. I should have posted a picture of the house, it's real cute and they worked very hard without air conditioning to fix it up. Krista will host their first family event for Grandpa Steve's birthday at the end of the month.

Friday, August 6, 2010

Grumpier than Usual

Generally, I tend to be a bit of a Pollyanna -- optimistic and cheerful even when surrounded by gloom and doom. You know, the one who in the darkest times says, "this too, shall pass." The glass half-full type of person. Not so lately. I'm grouchy. Not depressed. Just ticked off at:
  1. The election results
  2. The heat wave
  3. My new cell phone that quit working
  4. School buses with no seat belts
  5. Amazon's pricing of ebooks (in many cases, higher than print)
  6. My high electric bill
  7. A dog who barks in spite of "Barks Off"
  8. A broken sewing machine
  9. School starting in two weeks
  10. Not going to California for Lisa's birthday and Tom, Nichole, and Mallaika's visit.
I promise that my next post will be a list of things that please me. Oooooh, I think Pollyanna is coming in the door.