November's End

I really meant to do four posts this month, but the busy end seemed to be my undoing.  And here we are, on the last day of November. Oh well! 

Thanksgiving was wonderful.  We ended up celebrating on Friday with Ann, Eric and the boys. (Daniel asked what we ate on the actual Thanksgiving day and I told him, "Frozen ravioli and salad!"  He seemed astounded.)  But on Friday, we had the whole Thanksgiving dinner! We enjoyed all our visiting the most, I think.  (The pumpkin pie Dan and I had for Saturday morning's breakfast was pretty good, too.)

Now it's time to think about decorating for Christmas and I decided to wait until tomorrow to start.  I've been cleaning bathrooms today and as I set things out tomorrow, I'll dust and vacuum. Some days I really miss having the cleaning lady of my teaching days.  But then some days I really enjoy cleaning, so there's that.  

I finally finished the Peace on Earth wall hanging and I am very happy with it.  My plan is to hang it in the downstairs guest room where I have a large, empty wall just waiting for it.

I have also been continuing to do a lot of reading. Ann loaned me an interesting book and I really enjoyed it.  

The Traitor's Wife is a fictionalized story about Peggy Shippen Arnold, Benedict Arnold's wife, but it is based on fact.  As it turns out, history has shown that she was the major force behind his defection during the Revolutionary War.  If you're looking for a good read and love history, this will surely appeal to you. 

And that's it for the end of November, in the strange year of 2020.  ♥

And the Snow Came Down

 

And I'm thrilled I'm finally getting the camera figured out and was able to capture the snow as it fell.  It was so beautiful!  And yes, I had Christmas music playing.  ♥

A Tale of a Rotisserie Chicken. . . and Stew

I mentioned that we went to Costco a week or so ago. One of the things we purchased was a rotisserie chicken for the amazing price of $4.99.  I meant to have it for dinner that night when we got home, but we were later getting to Costco than I had anticipated, which meant we were later leaving, so we popped into Taco Time and got a bite.  Which was interesting because they served it to us in a bag, which we carried to an available table and unpacked.  Such strange times. . .

Anyway, the chicken became our Saturday night dinner, and then again on Sunday.  And there was so much left!! A day or so later, I decided to chop some up and make chicken and black bean enchiladas.  The recipe said it made four or five, but I ended up with a dozen!  I froze six and we ate the other six that night and the next. And still there was chicken left, so I chopped it up and froze it.  Saturday night I decided to make pizza and opted for white sauce and the frozen chicken, along with a little Canadian bacon, red peppers and olives.  We ate the pizza for two nights and I ate the rest for lunch today. (Dan was so kind to let me have it!) And we still have those six enchiladas in the freezer.  That $4.99 chicken has already fed us numerous meals with two still to go. I feel kind of like it was the loaves and fishes!  I think I'll be buying another soon.  

And stew?  We have had a very cold November.  We have snow again, with more forecast for tonight and tomorrow night.  I love cold weather cooking--soups, stews, breads, muffins.  Right after breakfast this morning I pondered supper.  I knew I had some potatoes and celery in need of using up, so I thought of stew.  I have a recipe I clipped from the paper years ago called Five Hour Midnight Stew.  It's fairly simple, but you have to remember to get started early as it bakes in the oven for five hours as the title states.  

It tasted so good!  I had some leftover muffins from a couple of weeks ago in the freezer so I zapped them to complete our dinner.  There's lots of stew left, so I'm good to go for a few nights.  ♥

A Family of Readers

Here it is, the end of October and Halloween. We've never been big Halloween people, with the exception of hoping for good candy--you know, Snickers, Peanut Butter Cups, etc.  I remember being totally bummed as a kid when someone put an apple in my bag.  Junk food, that's what Halloween was all about, and by the time it was November 2, all was gone but the dregs which would most likely be tossed.  Oh, and this lovely poem my brother used to recite:  Trick or treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat. LOL!

But, that's not what this post is about.  It's about reading.  Yup, reading.  I've loved to read as far back as I can remember.  I know my parents read to me from the time I was little, and once I could read for myself, I was never without a book. I used to get in trouble in grade school for hiding a book under my desk and reading when I was supposed to be listening.  (I remember the first day of my very first batch of students and a dad brought his son to the door and told me that the son liked to read all the time but would always know what was going on in the class.  I told the dad I completely understood as I'd done the same thing as a child.  Dakota, if you are reading this, that boy would be you!)

Fortunately, I married Dan who is also a reader. Our house is full of books, they line shelves and fill boxes labeled by author.  And it's no surprise that our kids turned out to be readers, too.  And now, our grandchildren.  

We were at Costco yesterday and I spotted the latest Wimpy Kid book.  Cam and Keat loved Wimpy Kid books when they were young, and now Daniel does, too. They're kind of "graphic novels" in that there are stick drawings and words.  (They are truly funny.  I read one last summer and laughed my way through it!) Anyway, when I spotted the new one, I snapped a photo of the display and texted Ann.  She said, "Yes, please!"  

When we dropped off some other things we'd picked up for her, I asked if she wanted the book to remain hidden and she said no.  They've been quarantined for the past two weeks as Keat and Eric had tested positive for the virus (no real symptoms, just a brief fever and lethargy for a day or so) and poor D has been a good sport but getting very tired of the whole situation.  The book was just what he needed.  When I handed it to him his eyes lit up and he kept saying, "Thank you!"  

Ann texted us this picture a little while later.  

Under his blanket, totally engrossed.  Made this Grammy's heart smile.  ♥

Snoctober!

Well.

I took some photos of our beautiful leaves last Thursday night.  The yard and the trees were so beautiful!

And then Friday came.  And so did the snow.  

This was just the beginning.  We ended up with about four inches.  And it's still here!!  I feel like it must be December.  (I have refrained from playing Christmas music, however!) Five days of snow and cold in October.  Tomorrow is supposed to finally be above freezing and then maybe the snow will melt.  

We stayed in and cozied up to the fireplace and I've been knitting away on those brown socks.  Good news!  I should be done tomorrow.  I was able to get away with undoing just the toe of the too-short-sock and I'll be the first to say how amazed I am. I'm just glad it worked!  Time for a new color of yarn!

I'm also getting the Christmas wall hanging quilted, a little at a time.  I finally decided to just stitch in the ditch using my Bernina 830 and a walking foot.  I'm so thankful for a machine with a large throat space and my nice sewing cabinet so that everything is level with room to spread out.  Spoiled, that's what I am.  

Well, that's the latest here at the Resort.  Just trying to stay warm and get a few projects done. I made a yummy ham and pea soup in the Instant Pot this week and that's kept our tummies warm, along with muffins.  I do love winter cooking!  ♥

Beauty

Yesterday as I was making our bed, I glanced out the window and saw the beautiful leaves on the box elder tree, the branches where leaves had already fallen, and the raindrops clinging to those branches.  The rain was pouring down and the sky was grey.  But those leaves!  

I abandoned the bed and went in search of the camera. I have lately tried to learn more about it and as I attempted to change settings, the batteries ran out. Drat!!  Back to the bed.  Then Dan showed up and rescued me by going downstairs and changing out the batteries.  (Why do we not keep batteries upstairs?  A good question to ponder.  Maybe I'll bring some up today!) 

With the bed made and camera back in action, I began again to try different settings.  I've never been able to capture the leaf colors.  I snapped, changed, snapped, changed, and finally, success!!  

Color! Raindrops! Beauty! ♥

Goodness Gracious!

How can the time have passed so quickly?!?  Guess I've been busy.  But with what?  That's the question.  The days just seem to fly by and they're much shorter now, too.  We have to learn to drive in the dark again, which seems to be more difficult each year.  

Our church secretary knows she can call me when she needs someone to take over the office when she can't be there for one reason or another.  I've done it several times the last couple of weeks and will again this Friday. Kind of fun to pull out my secretarial skills again.   

Last week was Ann's birthday and she wanted Mexican, so we masked up and made our way to our favorite place early and were able to score a table.  They have seating portioned off and it was like our own section. We were just grateful to all get to sit together and could since we were all family.  After eating, we came back to our house for cake and presents and some good visiting.  For some reason, D likes to take baths at our house, so he happily hopped in since it was his bath night and would be too late for one when he got home. He came out all bright and shiny clean.  

I've been helping a friend out with a quilt she is making for a daughter and son-in-law for Christmas.  It's a funny story as the son-in-law saw a quilt kit and bought it not realizing that his bride didn't sew.  (A natural assumption as all the other women in her family did.) So he gave it to my friend to make and she's had it for eighteen years.  She finally decided it would make a perfect gift this Christmas but was hesitant as it involved processes she'd never tried before and that's where I came in to help and cheer her on.  

I haven't taken any recent photos but here's a great one of D when he and his dad were out on a recent hike. Note the bee nest in the background!  

Fall has truly arrived.  We had a wet weekend and the leaves are swirling.  I've had to dig out sweaters and fleece tops and wool socks.  It feels good!  I love fall!  ♥