Healthy Thanksgiving

We had a fairly small gathering at my parents' house for Thanksgiving: our family, my parents, and my brother. We ate a fairly healthy dinner. I made a cranberry relish and also a cranberry-chipotle sauce for the turkey. Below, is a picture of my wonderful Pumpkin Pie Cake.

I made a King Arthur Flour recipe of gingerbread cookies. My dad bit into one and said, "They taste like gingerbread!" He said he was surprised because most "gingerbread" cookies are not very flavorful.

They were actually much tastier before they were smothered in icing and sprinkles!

I hope you all had great Thanksgivings!

Halloween Post 2

Here are my brother's Rice Creepies with my Halloween Tree.

I wonder how many candy wrappers are hiding in the bushes!

Be sure to check out the next post for more Halloween fun!

Halloween with the Fam

Last night we trick-or-treated in my hometown. I cannot remember the last time I trick-or-treated with my brother and sister. But we went out with our parents, our girls and two husbands. We all saw old faces from our school days. Here are a couple of pictures of the girls (and Eric, Nutmeg's and Chipmunk's uncle and Babycakes' daddy) on the old front porch. In years past, we always had obiligatory pictures made here with dates or before setting off on some adventure like graduation or Senior Trip.

Here are my siblings with Babycakes- I know, people think Eric is our other brother!

Here is my sister trick-or-treating with her nieces. I had to fight my brother and brother-in-law to trick-or-treat with MY niece! You can actually see bits and pieces of the whole Fam in this photo - except the photographer ;) !

Hmmmm. Do we trust these two?

They are supposed to be stroke and turn judges....

New Blog-Baby

I have a new blog-baby! I am really excited about Nature study, so I thought I would start a nature journal-blog. My husband has been thinking of blogging, but cannot settle on an idea. This will give him a nudge into the blogosphere! We are now a blogger team! How romantic!

Visit us at Middle Earth Wanderings

Please say a prayer for my grandfather

HEAR us, Almighty and most merciful God and Saviour; extend thy accustomed goodness to this thy servant who is grieved with sickness. Visit him, O Lord, with thy loving mercy, and so restore him to his former health, that he may give thanks unto thee in thy holy Church; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

I'm back !

I am pretty excited! We have our internet service back today! I just broke down - I need the internet! And when my husband called to get the service re-connected, he found out we could get internet without a full telephone package. The provider does not advertsise it, of course, and the person I talked to said no way. So here I am catching you up and then off to catch up on your blogs!

A week or so ago, we went to a science museum exhibit on - guess what - penguins! They had an area set up with a slide so the kids could slide on their penguin-suit-bellies, and a place to walk around with an egg on their feet. They loved it!

This picture says southern summer to me. My friend K and her family have a Camp Meeting every summer. They have a beautiful camp with "tents" (un-air conditioned buildings) and pews set up in the center for church services. K always invites us over, and the children play and then attend a children's church service. My husband and I were raised Southern Baptist, so along with the bible stories, they are getting some southern heritage lessons!

My Pop always wanted a boy - he got two daughters, three granddaughters and (so far) three great-granddaughters. (Okay, there are two grandsons). But I think he likes us! Right, Pop? Doesn't my little Chipmunk stand out with her blond hair?

Love, love love!

Wordless Wednesday

What have we been up to?

Some of this,

a bit of this,

and a whole lot of this!

Weekly Report

Has it been a week already? These pictures are from Sunday when The Fam gathered to celebrate my husband's birthday. That is my dad and sister in the background. The Chipmunk had stepped in the cake (in its plastic container) then it melted a bit in the car. But it was chocolate, so we ate it! Nutmeg wanted to hold my niece, Babycakes, all day.

My parents took the girls home with them, so Jerry and I got to be a couple for the first time in awhile. We saw the new Indiana movie and ate Italian. Wednesday and Thursday, the girls and I really did school. I was surprised at Nutmeg's good attitude after so many days off. She was hyper though. What did you feed them, Gran?

We are far behind the history schedule that I set for us, so we will definitely have to work on that this summer. Next week will start on Wm Penn. There is a great story my husband related to me about Wm. Penn meeting King Charles II. Apparently, Wm Penn came for an audience and, being a Quaker, did not remove his hat before the king. There was palpable tension throughout the audience chamber. Ever gracious, King Charles removed his own hat. Penn queried, "Friend Charles, why hast thou uncovered?" The kingly Charles replied, "Friend Penn, we are accustomed to having only one hat in this chamber."

Ahhh. The Stuarts! Can you tell we will be covering the ousting of the Stuart monarchy a bit different than SOTW?

Well. We are still working on the Pond unit. We are going to finish it! We have been reviewing amphibians this week. My husband picked up some holds at the library for me, and the librarian asked what we would do with ourselves with only 4 books! Hmmm..

I thought I found "kin" last night at the pool. A lady was telling me that after 15 years of marriage, her grandmother did not call her (my friend's) husband by his name. She calls him "hickey." "No way!" I say. "Where is your grandmother from?" Would you believe her grandmother and my grandmother are from the same county? I located her by that one word, "hickey." I was telling my grandmother about that, and well, one hickey leads to another..."What's your hickey again?" Mimi asked. And by "hickey" I of course knew she meant my blog address. I really need to get off this hickey and go do some work in the hickey.

Michele

I hope you all had a great hickey.

Happy Birthday, Jerry

Happy Mothers' Day

Happy Mother's Day to all especially my mom, mother-in-law, two grandmothers, sister, sisters-in law, aunt and great aunts and friends (most of whom are probably not speaking to me because we are staying home today! Nutmeg is really miserable with hives:(

Especially Happy Mothers' Day to my sister Jennifer on her first Mother's Day!

Love,
Michele

My Beautiful Niece

Being in labor is a piece of cake compared to watching your sister in labor! When it is you, you are so focused. When it is your sister, all you can do is gather mountains of ice chips, scratch her legs, try to get a smile by telling her...crazy things! Right after the delivery , I promised my parents no more babies -ever -under any circumstances -we have enough babies -no way -no how -- but then you look at this little face....
She loves her Auntie. She is probably crying for me right now.

Spring Break?

What a week! Nutmeg was at a swim meet last weekend. The meet was held at a large university. We were all a bit overwhelmed. My very-pregnant-sister was very overwhelmed by the chlorine gas, staring waaaay down at the pools (3!), and the NOISE. Nutmeg did really well. I thought she did great to go down there and swim! I was sick with allergies on Mon and Tues, so we did not get much done. Tues was her last day at her arts academy. The end of the year festival is Saturday. Stay tuned for pictures. The time period is Baroque 1600-1750. Nutmeg's class is doing a living time-line. Nutmeg is Pocahontas. She has become obsessed with "being a real Indian." My grandmother is very obviously "a real Indian." I think she can get her home declared a reservation, but has never bothered about the paper work. Nutmeg is fascinated by that, but is having trouble understanding how the "blood" is "diluted" in successive generations. What a clumsy way to say it! Any way, Nutmeg is going to recite "Pocahontas" by Rosemary Carr Benet. (We found it in The Harp and Laurel Wreath.) It was her idea; the teacher came up with two-liners, and Nutmeg asked if she could recite a poem we worked on in the fall. Oh, here she is, reminding me we have to "felt" her treasure pouch she has been weaving in Colonial Girls. I am a bit intimidated. If it turns out well, we will take it to festival tomorrow. Surely, if I can get it off the loom..... We are getting a late start this morning. The Chipmunk is in the living room baptizing her baby dolls that she "just got born." Then they get stuffed in a bag. We are waiting for a call from my sister. My niece is due any minute!!! Maybe we will go down and do some math?

Michele

update

I have been working on 'Sunlit' by Blackbird Designs. The fabric and colors are so beautiful. It is a real pleasure to stitch. Last night (while watching 300), I finished 'Against Every Sin.' I cannot wait to start something new, but feel a bit overwhelmed. Now that homeschool has started up again in earnest (did it ever really stop?) I wonder if I will have as much time to stitch as I have over the summer. My mom and I went a bit crazy ordering from Stitching Bits and Bobs. They are having a sale until this Wednesday. I ordered 'Trix and Treats' by Blackbird Designs. I would like to start something from that. And I just won 'Pretty Pumpkins" by Homespun Elegance that Tanya listed on ebay! But for this morning, it is back to math... Does teaching Mary Margaret (6 1/2 years old) to cross stitch count as 'school' for the Georgia attendance records? It would have at one time, that's for sure.

Michele

Christmas in July

Yesterday, my mom and I went to a Christmas in July party at the Dogwood Patch which is the local-est needlework shop around. My mom spent Tuesday night with us and then we loaded up in her car and headed north to Hiawasee. My husband drove us and then took the girls to a beach area at the lake. We had a wonderful lunch at Michaelee's and then came home to check out our stash. The first picture is a hollyhock in my front garden. The second picture is the view of Lake Chatuge and the mountains from the Dogwood Patch's front door. The third picture is the gift I got in the gift swap - 40 count silk mesh! The last picture is a Brittercup ornament I did last year. I bought an autumn Britty Kitty design at the shop. My mom has not been 'in' to cross stitch for a while. I think she was a bit overwhelmed by the bounty at the Dogwood Patch!