The Weekend Review

It was a wonderful weekend here. I spent Saturday cooking and baking. I decided to make Niki's Chili recipe and I used her bun recipe too....I love that one. I usually make my chili with Brookes Chili Beans, but they are adding high fructose corn syrup to them now. I had never made chili from scratch and it was quite the adventure. I soaked my beans....all 3 bags of them. I did not look at the recipe closely, which calls for 2 cups...that would be 1 bag. Anyway, I had LOTS of beans in a not so big pot. Did you know beans get bigger in water????No real harm. I just measured out about 6 cups after they were boiled and froze the rest. So I was wrong....there was harm. While boiling the beans, I went upstairs to print out the recipe and did a little post on the Eating 2 Live blog. When I came down the house was thick in natural gas. The beans had boiled over and put out the flame on my gas stove. The kids were outside already, but I got Kyle out and opened all the doors and windows. Good grief!!!! It left a big mess.It cleared pretty quickly and the chili was definitely worth the mishaps!!!It is better than any chili I have ever made. We had it 2 nights in a row, at Sweetheart's request, and Sweetheart is not a leftover kinda guy! The buns were also excellent!Sunday, I spent most of the day deep, deep, deep cleaning Zachary's room. He is a pig, that kid!! Sweetheart helped me move furniture and he did some repairs to the trim and curtain rod. I wanted the bed away from the window. Sweetheart also put up Zach's map and a bulletin board for him. I am hopeful, but not certain, he will keep it nice. My youngest children are quite destructive.I baked cookies........and had some time to cut 9 patches....When I moved the open hutch into the eating area, several months ago, I had to move the bench that was there. It ended up in my sewing room closet. I love this bench. Sweetheart made it for me. The seat opens up and it has tons of storage. It hold pictures for the moment. Anyway, I wanted it out of my closet, so I found a spot in my bedroom. Sweetheart and I moved his chest of drawers over and the bench fit perfectly between the windows.My back is sore after all that furniture lifting! It feels good to accomplish some things I have been wanting to get done. I will show you the sewing room closet when it is finished...there was another reason I wanted the bench out of there.

I am recovered from all my dental work...wisdom tooth pulled, and one week later a root canal. I am happy to be back in the swing! As I was finishing with my root canal, a man was walking past the room I was in. He was talking to the girl who was leading him down the hall and was telling her about how he had swallowed his bridge! The dentist and my mom (yes, I took her with me), about fell out laughing. Dr. Joiner said, "You could be in worse shape right now!"...my mom said, "I hope it doesn't bite him on the way out!" Yes, root canals CAN be fun!!! NOT!!!!

After our Sunday clean, Sweetheart settled in to the Bears game he had taped (with a few cookies, of course).......after 30 years, I am still totally in love with this guy!

I grabbed a book and joined him. Have any of you read this....

It is really good!!!! I am enjoying it. I did spend some time on Emerson's quilt this weekend. It is slow going, but I think it will be one of those that surprises me when it is finally done.

I wanted to say thank you to Page for sending me such a wonderful package all the way from England.....Wonderful tea towels, chocolate, 2 kinds of tea, and a cute magnet! It came on the day I was recovering from my root canal. The card was very touching! Such a nice treat. Thank you, Page!!

I hope you are all making the rounds of the Fall into Fall Quilter's giveaways. There are so many wonderfully generous quilter's out there!!! Click on the link to find them.

Have a blessed Monday!!!!