Sunday (Not My) Snapshots

Kristin's family was out of town this weekend, and half of our household was under the weather, so our Sunday was not the usual kind of Sunday.  (I may or may not have uttered the word "bored."  And I can't even remember the last time I was bored.)  

The camera never left its case.  No Sunday Snapshots this week.  

But wait!  I did look at a lot of snapshots.  Does that count?  How about if I share with you some of the autumn inspiration that I found on Pinterest this weekend?  

I just love the simple elegance of this autumn table.

~ pin ~

These earthy-colored wools make me swoon.

~ pin ~

These pumpkin donuts are baked, not deep fried.  
That makes them healthy, right? 

~ source ~

Kati took this picture last year at the farm stand where we purchased our pumpkins and gourds.

~ source ~

Wouldn't this make a fun fall centerpiece?

~ pin ~

As if I wasn't already itching to do my fall decorating!  Now I'm chomping at the bit!

Back to School

Back to earlier wake-ups and Morning Time and poetry and Mozart and co-op and The Vikings and The History of Medicine and narrations and new pencils and new words and afternoon tea and reading on the love seat and routine.

It's good to be back.   

Early Fall Decorating

"Autumn is the mellower season, 

and what we lose in flowers we more than gain in fruits."

~ Samuel Butler

Autumn is the season that makes my heart sing!  Since June, I have been itching for fall to arrive.  And since I consider September 1st the advent of fall, I need wait no longer to burn that pumpkin candle and festoon my house with gourds and Indian corn.  

But, I just can't go all out with autumn decorating when I still have geraniums in my window boxes and impatiens on my back porch.  So until we go to the farm stand and buy our pumpkins and mums, I am adding some subtle fall touches, more of the fall fruit variety, which is actually quite September-y.  

~ apples and pears in the yellow ware bowls~

~ homespun apple (crafted by Kati) atop the school cabinet~

~ even some pear-scented hand soap on the bathroom sink~  

Add an apple-cinnamon candle for more fruity ambiance, and I can wait a few more days to get my pumpkins.

How do you decorate in early fall?  Do you ease into it, or just jump right in?

The Week That Was...

...supposed to be a "vacation" week because Ron was off from work, although we didn't plan to do a big trip, just a day trip maybe and get a few projects done, but it rained all week long, at least a part of every day except today, ranging from cloudy to sprinkles to thunderstorms to total gully washers, and then there was Kati's dental surgery mid-week meaning we were definitely staying close to home and the living room was full of pillows and meds and a puffy-cheeked girl and Netflix movies and menus with soft foods.  Vacation?  

Or did the week go like this?

Ron had nine days off from work!

We had some much needed rain.

We actually managed to get a few small projects done in between raindrops.  

We went on an evening out-of-town trip to an ice cream shop at a dairy farm that sells the. best. homemade ice cream.  And I got a single dip of pumpkin pie ice cream in a waffle cone (also homemade).  And I may have had a few bites of Ron's maple walnut cone.  Hooray for fall flavors!!  

Kati's surgery went very well.  She had not one bit of nausea which was more dreaded than the post-op pain.  More importantly, her love for the Lord was seen by the medical staff.  Patients are asked to bring in a CD of their favorite music to play during the procedure.  Kati burned her own CD of a collection of hymns and Rich Mullins and Selah tunes.  The surgeon remarked that she was a calm patient...and that her music was calming to him.  Praise the Lord for using the small things...

I made a big pot of creamy potato soup for the patient, but the rest of us enjoyed it as much as she did.  It was our first (of many!) pot of soup to herald the autumn season.  (Never mind that it was still tropical outside on the night that we ate it.)  Hooray for fall!!  

We were able to relax many evenings (and even some afternoons...unheard of!) with movies and games and family time, since we were housebound because of the rain and the patient.  

We had a delightful Skype conversation with Ryan and family.  It was the first time that 22-month-old Peter showed a lot of interest in the camera, and we could hardly listen to what Ryan was saying because we were laughing at Peter!  He kept putting that precious little face right up to the camera and making these huge scowls, trying to figure out what was going on and how we were talking to him in that little screen.  After many scowling faces, and many laughs from the four of us, he lightened up and played peek-a-boo with the camera.  Such fun!  Then 5-year-old Eve sang a hymn for us and we were amazed at how beautiful and clear her voice is.  And then 3-year-old Nora quoted some Scripture verses in her sweet little voice.  Oh my.  We were melting.  

Bekah asked, "Mom, are you excited about school starting?"  And she asked in an excited voice. Which thrills this mama.  It's going to be a great year.  

And so...

It wasn't a bad week after all.  

When I look at our blessings, and recognize His great mercy in our lives, and consider that Eternal Life with Him is at the end of this journey, how can I not fall on my knees and thank Him?  

And what's a little rain?   

Thursday Potpourri

Kati continues to hone her photography skills, and has to look no further than her own family for subjects.  She has five adorable nieces and nephew who live nearby, and, of course, younger sister Bekah "in house"!  

A recent afternoon found Bekah posing and Kati shooting.  This is one of my favorites, because it showcases Bekah's beautiful big brown eyes and those enchantingly long eyelashes.  (Is it okay for a mom to gush?)  If you'd like to see more photos from this shoot, click on the picture of Bekah.  

Brown transferware makes me swoon.  

I have been on the lookout for more to add to my collection ever since I found these plates.  Finding the right thing at the right price has been a challenge, although I really don't mind the search.  It's kind of like a treasure hunt.  

One day this summer, I found a great set of Johnson Brothers' Friendly Village dishes, six five-piece place settings, in an antiques and collectibles shop.  The price was quite reasonable, but more than I had to spend at the time.  But...on Monday, birthday money clutched in my hand, I returned to the shop.  There were the dishes, I was still in love, and home they came!  Swoon!  

We enjoyed our evening coffee in these gorgeous cups and saucers, and I (almost) forgot that, in real life, it was like the tropics outside.

This dear girl, my granddaughter Eve, had her very first day of (home)school this week.  If anyone is more excited than Eve or Eve's mom, it must be me!  They have not been far from my thoughts this week.  (Well, they're not far from my thoughts any week, but you know what I mean.)

It's so hard for me to believe that this schoolgirl Eve is the same tiny baby who left my driveway five years ago on that hot, hot August morning.  The baby is in kindergarten!

Happy beginnings, Eve!  

Sunday Snapshots: Birthdays, Ice Cream, and Uncle Max

Didn't I just say in last week's Sunday Snapshots, "Thus ends the crazy August birthday season?"

Well, yes, I did.  But I didn't say that all of the birthdays were over.  September 1 was this sweet girl's second birthday, and the first phase of our Sunday afternoon was dedicated to celebrating her, our youngest granddaughter Alaine.

The birthday girl was thrilled to open her presents, several of them packaged in owl-themed gift bags.  (One of Alaine's nicknames is "Owl-laine".  Story ~here~.)  Aunt Bekah presented her with a birthday cupcake, and she was all smiles as everyone sang to her.  So sweet!  

After the birthday party, we switched gears.  We had planned our end-of-summer homemade ice cream party, sort of a grand finale.  It had been overcast most of the day, but just about the time the ice cream was churned, thunder was rumbling in the distance and it began to sprinkle.  By the time all the guests had arrived, it was pouring, so instead of gathering in the back yard, we gathered in the kitchen.  No one minded.  After all, we had a gallon of chocolate ice cream and a gallon and a half of butter pecan to enjoy!  And Ron's sister Gloria got a birthday cupcake too!  (Alaine shares Aunt Gloria's birthday.)

Apparently, the coveted seat today was beside Uncle Max.  Kati says that it looks as if we either photoshopped in the kids, or we posed them beside a cardboard Uncle Max!  ~grin~   

(Or perhaps it's one of those "find the differences" pictures.)

From "Rest For the Laboring"

Oh what beautiful words of truth these are, spoken by Charles Hadley Spurgeon in a sermon "Rest for the Laboring" in 1876.  So beautiful...and so different from our modern way of thinking in which ambition is honored and self esteem is prized and the praise of men is intoxicating.

Yes, quite different is the heart of a disciple of Jesus.  

Perhaps, young man, you are laboring after fame. You despise gold, but you pant to obtain a great name. Alas, ambition’s ways are very weary, and he who climbs the loftiest peak of honor finds that it is a slippery place, where rest is quite unknown. Young brother, take a friend’s advice and care no longer for man’s praise, for it is mere wind. If thou wouldst rise to a great name, become a Christian, for the name of Christ is the name above every name, and it is bliss to be hidden beneath it, and overshadowed by it. Christ will not make thee great among men, but he will make thee so little in thine own esteem that the lowest place at his table will more than satisfy thee. He will give thee rest from that delirious dream of ambition, and yet fire thee with a higher ambition than ever.

The Last Week of Summer

As I prefer to observe the seasons unscientifically (posh to all the talk of equinoxes and solstices), I have considered this last week of August to be the final week of summer.

I have spent this week...

• Enjoying quiet mornings.  Morning's pace picks up once school begins again, so I have been soaking up the slow, leisurely beginnings of days.  

• Doing some fun things in the kitchen.  On Tuesday, each of us girls had a project.  Kati made a luscious pineapple cake.  Bekah made chocolate cookies by herself (per her request).  And I finally tried my hand at making pesto.  

• Celebrating my birthday.  Yes, I know I celebrated with my family on Sunday at our triple birthday party, but...when Kati volunteered to make a cake and told me to invite a few friends over... What's a mom to do?  I e-mailed some of my homeschool friends, they came, and we were all treated to tea and coffee, cake and fruit, at a beautifully set table.  I didn't lift a finger.  (Okay, I sliced some strawberries.  No big deal.)  It was a delightful, relaxing afternoon.  Girl time at its best.

• Saying "farewell" to summer in our favorite way.  Sipping Frappuccinos and meandering through Barnes and Noble.  

Next week Ron is off and Kati is scheduled to have dental surgery, so the week will have quite a different tone.  The following week we are back to (home)school and back to routine and back to the time of year that I love most.

How are you ending your summer?

12 Summer Salads {Round Up}

Because I like an index of sorts to order my thoughts, I have created this reference page to all the recipes I have featured here over the summer.  

(I think I am hungry just looking at them all again.)

Clockwise, from top left:

Autumn Chopped Salad

Cheeseburger Salad

Chicken Salad Deluxe

Broccoli Salad à l'Orange

BLT Macaroni Salad

Strawberry Spinach Salad with Poppy Seed Dressing

Greek Pasta Salad

Chicken BLT Salad 

 Layered Caribbean Chicken Salad

 Pesto Pasta Salad

Asian Chicken Salad

Caprese Salad

A Souvenir From the Seashore

Last week, Mom, my sister Linda, Kati, Bekah, and I made our annual trek to the beach for a day of family fun in the sun.  

The surf was quite rough that day.   Mom, Linda, and I mostly sit in our beach chairs and talk, and the girls are in and out of the water.  But because of the rough water (and high tide), I wouldn't let Bekah go out alone.   

At one point Bekah wanted to walk down to the pier to get some sea weed that clings to the pilings, and Mom volunteered to take a walk with her.  

They were walking along at the edge of the water, hardly even getting their toes wet...

...when a HUGE wave broke behind them, knocking them both completely off their feet! 

Bekah was able to get back up rather easily, but Mom was not.  She panicked, lying in the ocean with the water over her head (she doesn't swim), and feeling herself being pulled out to sea!  There were some tense moments. 

(At this point, I must add that Linda, Kati, and I were totally oblivious to the events on the shoreline, and were still chatting away in our comfy beach chairs.)

Mom finally managed to get back on her feet after the wave ebbed.  Whew!

Oh, but she was a sandy, wet mess!   She had a TON of sand in her bathing suit after being tossed about by the wave.  After considering several options, she decided to just let the sand be, and deal with it when she got back home.  

POST SCRIPT...

Mom called the next day to tell us this story.  

After she got home, she went into their backyard shed to take down her bathing suit and brush out all the sand.   She brushed it out, pulled her suit back up, went inside and showered.  Later she went back out to the shed to sweep out the sand...and there was a sand crab crawling around on the floor in the sand!!  

Source

She said if she had known that that thing was in her bathing suit, she'd have ripped that suit off right there on the beach!  

I guess it's a good thing she didn't know, huh?

Salad On Tuesday: Week 12 {Autumn Chopped Salad}

Today's post is the last one in my series on summer salads. 

But wait!  Did I really sneak in an autumn salad here at the end?  You bet I did!  (And I'll bet you're not even surprised.)

Saturday was one of those days that portended fall.  It was dark and rainy all day long and, inside my air conditioned home, I could pretend that it was cool and that the air was crisp. Stepping outside would have ruined the illusion, so I just didn't.  It was the perfect day to be inside anyway.  

So we did indoor things and baked and cleaned and got ready for Sunday's birthday bash.  When the dinner hour approached, I lit a crème brûlée candle, put pecan chicken in the oven, and the girls and I prepared this Autumn Chopped Salad.  I must say that it was a hit...even with the Salad Skeptic (whose identity I will protect, although you can probably guess who he is). Hooray!

If you want to pretend it's fall, try this salad.  Or if you're still eking out the last bit of summer, try it just because it's good!

Ingredients: 8 cups chopped romaine lettuce 3 red pears, cored and chopped 1 cup dried cranberries 1 cup chopped pecans 8 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled 6 oz. crumbled blue cheese Dressing Ingredients: 1/4 cup olive oil 1/4 cup white wine vinegar 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard 2 tablespoons sour cream 1 tablespoon sugar salt and pepper to taste Directions: Toss together the lettuce, pears, dried cranberries, pecans, bacon, and blue cheese* in a large serving bowl.   Whisk together dressing ingredients.  Pour desired amount over salad mixture and toss to coat.** * Because not everyone cares for blue cheese, I omitted it from the salad mixture, then served it separately to add as desired. ** When I make this salad again, I will not pour the dressing over the whole salad, but will let each person add it to their own serving.  Otherwise, the leftovers are soggy.  Believe it or not, there were leftovers, even though each of us ate a healthy portion.  You might want to consider halving this recipe if you are serving it to a small number of people.  (On the other hand, you might want leftovers!)

And now, on to autumn!  (If only the weather would cooperate with me!)

Looking for a recipe from another week?

Week 1:   BLT Macaroni Salad

Week 2:   Pesto Pasta Salad

Week 3:   Layered Caribbean Chicken Salad

Week 4:   Chicken Salad Deluxe
Week 5:   Cheeseburger Salad
Week 6:   Strawberry Spinach Salad with Poppy Seed Dressing
Week 7:   Chicken BLT Salad 
Week 8:   Broccoli Salad à l'Orange
Week 9:   Greek Pasta Salad
Week 10: Caprese Salad
Week 11: Asian Chicken Salad

Sunday Snapshots: Triple Birthday Party 2012

When three generations of women 

celebrate birthdays within a span of eleven days

they decide to get together and

share

the cake and the attention and the laughs and the food

and have one big party!  

Today was the day! 

This year's theme was cupcakes.  

(We are three women who love a theme!)

I totally copied Vee's jar of zinnias, mint, and rosemary!  

(Thank you for the inspiration for our party table, Vee!) 

We had a delicious salad lunch...

chicken salad, a colorful tossed salad, Caesar pasta salad,

mixed fruit salad with custard sauce, Caprese salad.

(I'm afraid we're not going to get skinny eating all these yummy salads!)

We visited and gave gifts and watched darling baby Isabel walk.

And, of course, we talked.  Quite a bit.

And laughed.  Oh indeed we did!  

(In fact, I got permission to tell you one of the funny stories. 

I'll tell you about it later this week.  I think you'll laugh too.)

Here are the birthday girls!

We only had to blow out 24 candles between us.

If we had each had a candle for every year, we would have had

157 candles!

(But we didn't want to set off the smoke alarm.  Yikes!)

And thus ends the crazy August Birthday Season.

Leftovers

I'm not talking about dinner leftovers, although I love those.  I'd much rather have some reheated soup or some salad for lunch than a sandwich.  

But the leftovers I'm talking about today are leftovers from our kitchen remodel.  

The scariest part of the kitchen remodel for me was the day that Ron put in our countertop...and asked ME to help him measure!  ACK!!  Too much pressure!  I was so afraid that we would make a mistake, and how do you fix a mistake that you discover after you have cut this costly piece of wood that can only be purchased at a store that is a couple of hours drive from your house?  And then the two 45° pieces did. not. meet.  (We later realized--after some blood, sweat, and tears--that it was the wall that was not square, not our countertop measurements/cuts.)  And then there was the opening for the sink...

~shudder~  

Why am I reliving this?  The good news is that the measuring is done.  The kitchen remodel is done.  And now we have leftovers.  

Leftover countertop, to be exact.  Made into a new cutting board.

These kinds of leftovers are great!  

I'm putting the cutting board to good use...

And there were enough "leftovers" to make another for Kristin's birthday.

And Ron thinks that he will have just enough to make one for Kati (who drooled over mine).  

The Dress Project {Dull Denim Dress}

On June 3, my daughter Kristin announced The Dress Project Summer Challenge.  I immediately put on my thinking cap, but it took me (actually us) all summer to get that project finished!  

Many of the entries have been "saves"--dresses or shirts that would have gone to the rag bag if their creative owners had not made them over, covering stains or tears, or adding length. 

Our project, however, simply upgraded a slightly dull denim dress to a dress with some spunk.  Pink spunk at that, to please the wearer.  

Bekah and I worked on this project together.  

Bekah was able to meet two of her "Craft Summer" weekly projects by creating two different embellishments to pin onto the dress.  The first, a felt flower, was created using a Martha Stewart kit that I had bought on clearance a couple of years ago.  The other, a felt cupcake with bead "sprinkles" and a button "cherry", was an evolution of an idea found in the children's craft book Made By Me.  

Then, I sewed some ribbon onto the fabric belt of the dress, and it was ready to wear!  

From drab to spunky...with a bit of felt, some simple stitches, a spark of creativity...and an entire summer!

(Because that's how we procrastinators operate.)

P.S. The Dress Project is open to participants through August 31!  (And there are prizes too!)  

Click  ~HERE~  for details.