My Everything Corner

Having an unstructured, quiet morning, I found myself missing my blog.  Although I've been visiting others' blogs, I hadn't added to my own in nearly 2 weeks.  So I thought it was time to catch up with what has been going on around here. We had our first get together since Uncle's passing. Although we were 2 days off my sister-in-law's special day, a comforting meal followed by a special cake was welcomed by everyone.  There was plenty of talk about Uncle and how things are going with the cleaning up of his home.  I know it isn't easy, and with every bit of physical progress, they make some emotional progress as well.  There are memories in everything they touch, right down to the old pancake mix.  Smiles are mixed with tears as they continue to sort through. The beginning of the new year is always my time to get caught up on the past year of scrap booking. I have completed two, one for each of my children and am well into a separate album for ...

We spent this past weekend celebrating our daughter's 13th birthday with decorations, cake, cards, gifts, and of course, friends and family!  Thank-you to everyone for making my little girl's day so special.  Now, here is a dreamy, (some might say cheesy) collage. I shared this post HERE for Mosaic Monday.

We had our first Spring rain!  I stepped out onto the deck and just listened to it.  I was already feeling good with the warmer temperatures, but that sound rejuvenated me from my winter slumber even further.   This is the first year that I've walked my dog out of the yard.  Even though we live on 10 acres, it gets a little dull walking around on only our turf.  I was worried he would take to wandering about the countryside on his own if I took him off our property.  Now that he is older, and much more relaxed, I started walking him, on leash, in all directions, and so far so good.  He's never had to be on a leash in the yard, and it surprises me to see him get so excited when I bring it out. With so many of the roads dry, the kids wanted their bikes down.  They've outgrown them though, and while they served their purpose that day, we will have to go shopping soon.

January was relatively kind this year.  Warmer temperatures allowed for a lot of time outside.  I even dusted the snow off my garden swing and had tea out there a few times.  The time of our sunrises during this month made it easy to enjoy every single one. Between all those walks outside, I've been spending my time scrapbooking.  My goal was to be caught up by the end of March, but it looks like I will be done by the middle of February! It's too bad you can't see it, but a lot of those colors in the sky were reflecting in the ice around the yard.  It was a very colorful morning. This doggy was built for winter, and was often overheating on our extended walks.  He was running around, ramming his face into the snow banks.  He loves when I make snowballs and throw them up into the air for him to catch and then to eat.  We haven't had much snow this year, so it didn't take a lot of sun to create large, bare patches of lawn....

With the colder than usual Spring, and the flooding at the end of June, we lost a good portion of our growing season, no less than 3 weeks is my guess.  Most of my pumpkins and gourds are well behind schedule, several weeks before they can be picked and expected to ripen.  The only thing to do is to hope that Mother Nature is feeling generous with the warm weather this Fall, and that we don't get a killing frost until at least the end of the month.  That's not what the forecast is calling for, but I really can't remember a time when the forecast has been accurate, (crossing fingers). Out of the 9 varieties of pumpkins and gourds, only the sugar pumpkins and the gremlin gourds are mature enough to pick, so we plucked off 71 of them and lined them up on our deck to sit in the sun and ripen.  It usually doesn't take long for them to slip into their orange skins once they've been fully exposed. Here are some photos of a few of the patches with my...

It's really not funny.  We had a record breaking cold, and it felt, longer than ever winter.  Went into Spring with a huge smile on my face, only to be greeted with colder than usual temperatures, and then at the end of June, record breaking rainfalls.  Now don't get me wrong, I'm very grateful that not only were my house and outbuildings relatively unaffected, but I think the majority of my gardens will recover too.  That is, providing we don't get a foot of golf ball sized hail next week.  I should also mention, that this year was the first time in my entire life that I witnessed a funnel cloud.  Yes, I had someone with me who can verify my story. So, if I'm so grateful, why do I sound so whiny?  I really thought that after surviving a winter like that, and not jumping ship, that Mother Nature would remember to take her Valium and dish out some milder, more appropriate weather.  Weather that would allow us to forgive her the all out 5 month b...

Without fail, on the morning of April 1st throughout my childhood, my Dad would manage to get me to come to the window to look at all the deer, or bunnies in the backyard.  I don't remember ever not falling for this. It's funny though, he always felt bad when he saw the disappointment on my face.  Well, now I know how he felt.   This morning, my daughter awoke, and uncharacteristically crawled into bed with me.  I told her, "I want to tell you a secret."  Her eyes brightened up, and she tilted her ear to my mouth.  "I'm having another baby." I said with a little excitement in my voice.    Her reaction: "Really!!??  Can I have the big bed downstairs?"    This was not what I expected.  Then I asked her if I could tell her another secret.  Again, she tilts her head to me. I say, "Happy April Fools Day! and don't tell Jared."    Very shortly after, my little guy, walks into the room and says, "Good...

I'm a little late on this post.  My birthday was on the 6th and we we forced to celebrate it early because the husband had to leave for work.  So these photos are from the 3rd.  I just have to take up some space bragging about my wonderful family and friends. First of all, Kaitlynn, who is only 11, and a completely fabulous young lady, wanted to cook supper for me. She decided that keeping it simple would be best.  She did not want a whole lot of help from her Father. The dinner consisted of a delicious, tender porchetta, roasted asparagus, and twice baked potatoes.  Everything tasted so good.  And they took it one step further, and made sure there were leftovers for the next day. Yay! - Two days with meals made for me! Our tasty dinner! Dinner was followed up with this fantastic white cake that my daughter baked from scratch.  She also did the decorating.  Did she not  do a fabulous job for her first time ever???  It is a...

The season doesn't really start until we've seen the kids' Christmas concert and school is officially out.  Jared's class performed "Mary Had a Baby" on recorders as well as singing several other songs between scenes of the play. This was my daughter's first experience as one of the lead roles in the play.  She seemed to be very comfortable up there and did a very good job of her lines. On the 23rd we had family over for food, drinks and games.  We put together 5 different 'minute-to-win-it' games.  The one above is called the North Pole. Once the cups are stacked, you have to pull the papers out quickly, dropping the top cup onto the bottom without knocking the tower down.  Good luck, not one of us were able to do this. Another game had us all sliding gingerbread men off our foreheads, down our face and into our mouths.  Most of us were unable to do this, Jared and Auntie Brenda were the only successful ones. Aft...

I've really enjoyed decorating for Halloween this year.  Plenty of pumpkins again, no snow, and a fantastic new marker to work with.  What more could you ask for?  Now for picture overload.  Enjoy, and have an awesome Halloween! An adorable cluster of Halloweenery. Did this last year.  Loved it.  Did it again.  A witch needs her apothecary. Thank-you to my baby sister for growing 2 of the most adorable little gourds.  And then giving them to me!  Cuz she loves me. Pumpkin carving in the shop = much easier clean-up.  Yeah! A dry run of my Daughter's wolf costume.  Not bad for my first time. That marker went a long way... Favorite pumpkin face.  Ever. 3 dimensional cookies?  Why not? New this year is the bat weathervane.  Love it. Nothing says Halloween like dead flowers? Night... Ha Ha wind!  In your face.  No candles to blow out this year! And here we are al...