The Busiest Weekend Ever Part 1

Look who's watching me write this post. Yep. It is Miss Emerson. She is still in bed...and rightfully so since she woke me up at 5:45 with her cooing through the monitor. She stops feeding on that bottle every once in a while to blow raspberries at me! Both of my grandkids spent the night last night. It was a fun Friday. They arrived a little after lunch time and TJ spent the whole day outside while his sister gave me a few (more) gray hairs. First she decided she could climb up to things on her knees. She had no idea how to get down, but she had not figured out if she let go so would fall. At one point I put her in TJ's old infant car seat while I worked in the kitchen. Sweetheart came through and said, "You know she is out of there, right?" NO! Yes she was. She had climbed right out of that thing. What else could I do???
She is strapped in there! When she woke up from her very short nap, we went outside to play. I narrowed these pics down...really I did.Girls and phones....

Paw Paw joined in for some Emerson time.

She told him some stories. Pretty soon TJ wanted some Paw Paw time too.

Emerson decided she did not want anything to do with tickle wars! She was outta there.

Tickle wars begins....

I think Paw Paw won....

Emerson headed for Grandma's sewing....that's my girl!

We enjoyed the outdoors. It was a cool 72 degrees in the shade and the yard was gorgeous. Sweetheart has worked so hard in the front yard the past week.

"Kunckle Kyle" and TJ worked on some bike repairs....

In the backyard we have roses blooming! It is the first rose these bushes produced in the 6 years they have been there. Thanks to a bloggers comments (I can not remember who) last year when I shared Sweethearts distress over his rose bushes not blooming! He took her advice and viola! (I went back and looked and it was Gina who gave us the advice on pruning! Thanks Gina!)

We had a dinner of swiss steak cooked in tomatoes, onions and green peppers over brown rice. It was wonderful.

Before bed, TJ wanted to see how much he had grown since he fit in his old car seat....

When you are an adult, TJ, and you look at this, you can see what a dork you could be sometimes!!!! Grandma still loves you!!!

The kids all went to bed wonderfully....they were tired. Me too, but I did spend some time in my cozy corner, at the end of the couch, basting hexagons. Only 6 more to go and I will be ready to attach them into a stunning table runner!I get the morning with the kids and then I need to be at church by 11 am to set up the Ladies Titus Tea. After that, today will be a whirlwind that will not end until I fall into bed very late tonight. It will be unusually busy, but a good busy. I am excited for Sunday after church when I can sit back and relax for a while! Until then I better get going.....

Be Blessed,
Bren

Projects

The other day, I sat on the deck watching my husband mow the back yard. As I watched him make those incredibly straight lines with his beloved push mower, I thought about how blessed I am to have a husband who cares. He is very thoughtful about the appearance of his lawn. His yard is his signature. Next, is the garage, but we all use it and he can never have it just like he wants it. Needless to say, he is a man who always has a project. In the winter he does a lot of woodwork and I have many treasures in my house he has made for me. In the summer, his focus is outside. Recently, he built a lattice wall around the air conditioner unit and all of the wires/boxes on the back side of the house.He painted it white and put a small flower bed in front of it and took it around the back side of the house. It looks wonderful and hides all that "mess"Everything back there is still accessible with the removal of 4 screws. He is a worker, that guy. Being laid off the last several months has been a 2 edged sword. On the one hand, things are tight. On the other hand, Sweetheart is much more relaxed and seems very happy. He was so stressed out before. It was not good for him. He is a car man, so you know how that is going. He is no longer laid off, as the dealership he managed is now closed. Very sad. The owner, is a wonderful man who did all he could, but it was not enough. If this genus of a business man could not keep the doors open, then no one could. We know God is in control and whatever doors close, He is behind it, and whatever doors open, He is there too. So we all have projects going here. The money being tight brought with it another project. I am not a frugal person by nature. I am teaching myself to be though and I am doing better than I thought. I have some changes in the kitchen....most of my money spending happens at the grocery store. I started my sour dough again, with Charlotte's promise she will leave it alone. It is under the towel, fermenting away.I also started a batch of yogurt. We eat a lot of yogurt here. I eat Activia every other day and the kids devour any yogurt that comes in the house. This will save many dollars!I went to the grocery store(s), yes I went to 2....I will do that once a month, but not every time as I detest grocery shopping. I found a 2 oz. bottle of PURE vanilla extract for 1.99! Can you believe it? Amazing....I bought 2. Plus that large bottle of ground cinnimon...1.99 also! The extra virgin olive oil was only 3.99 and I know I saved big on that too.Saving money at the store is a project in it's self for me!

Another project is the garden. It is small. Really small, as in 3 tomato plants......2 pepper plants......and 1 cantaloupe.

I still have room for some green beans and sugar snap peas....oh and there is a row of onions in there already. Next year will bring a different kind of garden. We have tried to compromise on the garden. It is so little I can not grow much more than what is there. Sweetheart does not want his yard dug up. He came up with a solution.

This area next to the garage is wasted space.....

He will remove the end of the fence with the gate, extend the fence line down to just before the drain pipe and reattach the end section with the gate. That will ALL be garden!!! It does not look like much, but it is more than I had hoped for and will give me LOTS of room to grow food for canning. I don't call him Sweetheart for nothing!

My latest project is giving me fits. I have it on my design wall and am just not happy with it. I tried to use the background fabric as setting blocks, but it was too drab. So I added color in the corners...see that end setting block?Nope. I need to get a fabric that has a color. Something that reads solid like a tone on tone, but in a sagey green or a powdery blue or a lavender....what about a sunshine yellow??? What do you all think? There will be 4 rows of baskets and 3 rows of setting blocks, plus the setting triangles all the way around. Lots of wonderful quilting space!

So those are the projects for now...Sweetheart is now working on the front yard. He trimmed all the bushes and trees and now is ready to lay mulch. We lost a bush this year. No idea why, but it just died. It rained all day and it is suppose to rain tomorrow. What projects do we have to look forward too? Fox News and Cubs....in that order!! Lord, have mercy!

I wanted to share my little TJ with you. He came to Grandma's for a few hours to play and he spent all his time with "Uncle" Zachary. They played cars and got along so well. (They argue sometimes....ok a lot)At one point when they were playing, I heard TJ say, "Zachary, I sure love you." AWWWWWW. My heart melted. It was so sweet. Zach never even looked up. He just said, "I love you too, TJ." Those boys are awesome!Be Blessed,

Bren

Progress

I have been busy, but have had great progress in several areas! TJ took a trip to The Discovery Center and then to Chuck E. Cheese on Wednesday. He and his mom and dad had a great time. They shared some pics with me. It was hard to choose what ones to share with you as they were all so good. He looks so happy in these!
What fun! And where was Emerson??? Why at Grandma's, of course!!! This Chicky wants to move!!!She is grandma's girl!!
So where is all that progress??? Well I made a nice dinner Wednesday evening before we headed out for Awana's....

My mother-in-love bought me a new set of ceramic bake ware (just to bless me) and I LOVE it! There are 3 different sizes and 4 pieces...plus each piece has a lid and a wire rack with a wicker placemat in the bottom. Beautiful. This one is a deep casserole, larger than a 9x13. I made a double batch of Chicken Dressing Casserole for our family and my son's family. It was wonderful!

Other progress is the doors are finally on the storage room in the new "Man Room". It took 2 days!!! Sweetheart says he understands why people make "pre-hung" doors!Don't they look great??!! He is glad that is over. Next is carpet and trim. Zach has been a big help. They sat back this evening and admired their work.I love the color of the walls. I had that color picked out for my bedroom! Now what will I do?

Charlotte and Rachel have made progress on their lap blankets....I forgot to get a picture of Rachel's. It is gorgeous! I love it. Poor Charlotte had to rip hers all out. She was doing something wrong that would have gave her a big circle, but Rachel helped her figure it out and she is on the right path again. I told her it takes practice....I have made my own progress. I got another load of books done and ready to take back to church tomorrow. I am getting closer....

I also started basting my elongated hexagons. I have really enjoyed this process and had to make myself put it away. I can see this becoming an addiction!I have 14 out of 70 done...plus I need 77 yellow squares. I have 3. All of those only took a couple of hours, maybe less. It goes very fast. Still, I needed to stay on task with my goals. I worked many hours on my sister's quilt over the last 2 days, and there is much to show for it.I have moved the hoop many times and it is starting to feel like a quilt. I will spend tomorrow and most of the weekend pounding away at it. When my fingers get too sore to go on, I can always pull out some hexagons!! Just kidding...I will persevere, bloody fingers or not!

It was in the 60's today and I was able to get a couple of walks in. Tomorrow is to be warm again, but I think we will get some rain. If possible, I plan to get out and walk some more.

Now, I will turn in and rest for tomorrow...sitting on your rump quilting all day takes alot out of you!!!!!