An Early December Sampler

Instead of chocolates, I'm sending out some photos of what our first few days of December have been.

Decorations....

Chipping away the ice from the weekend ice storm. It was good that we had afternoon church, because all four of us spent nearly two hours getting the driveway and front sidewalks free of most of the ice. I spent an hour yesterday working on the deck. Since we don't have any ice skates, it was a bit hazardous. One family on the street built a circular igloo (or in my childhood, we would have called it a fort, since it didn't have a roof) with all the chunks of ice from their driveway. School began 2 hours late yesterday morning with the leftover ice, and it is supposed to snow/rain/etc, again tomorrow. I'm getting tired of ice...

Last night, Alice took part in her school's 5th & 6th grade musical. (Alice is wearing the blue hat on the second row). She also had a small solo on one number. It was fun to watch!

A few notes

A busy week or two, and suddenly I'm way behind on my posts! The October/November time is like that. With our anniversay, birthday, Halloween, stake conference, and all the yard work to tuck things in for the winter, there just hasn't been much extra time.

First, I had to include Kevin from the ward Halloween party. Someone had an afro wig, add a mustache, etc., and voila!

Second, the jack-o-lantern--design by Elizabeth, workmanship--Kevin, pumpkin preparation--Alice and me. A real family affair with a pumpkin that had lots of character.

We had almost 100 trick-or-treaters here on Halloween night. Although it was a chilly night (40 degrees with a north wind), it didn't seem to keep people home. If Halloween had been one night earlier, we would have had 60 degree balmy weather! We would have been able to leave the coats at home.

The girls and I went to a ward member's home Halloween party for an hour, then joined some of their school friends for the last hour of trick-or-treating, in a ritzy area of town. They got king-size candy bars at some of the homes! I haven't seen Elizabeth's stash of candy lately, but I'm sure it is diminishing rapidly. Alice has had a bad cold, and has held off eating her candy, since sugar suppresses the immune system and she wants hers to be as strong as possible. She asked me to put her stash up out of sight so she wouldn't be tempted to indulge.

Then a few days later we had stake conference. Since there was no General Authority or broadcast, the stake presidency had the whole show; Kevin had three talks to prepare. He did well with all of them! For the Sunday session, Elizabeth and Alice, along with another young woman from our ward were asked to provide string music for the prelude. So we worked up a number of hymns and hymn arrangements (I accompanied), and they provided 15 minutes of music. They sounded so nice! Lots of people complimented them after the meeting.

The day before, it was the Young Women's turn to clean the chapel, so we were able to inspire them "we get to make the church look super for all the visitors at stake conference"! And they responded. Elizabeth even got a flower arrangement out of the Relief Society closet to dress up the women's bathroom. It was fun to participate with them in the extra-special cleaning.

So, it was my birthday...

After a leisurely-spent day, doing what I wanted to do rather than what I should do, we went to Black Hawk Park for a picnic. That's where the ward often has their 24th of July event. It was nice that daylight savings hadn't ended, so we still had a bit of sunshine. Still, it was chilly as the sun set. (But there were still mosquitoes out!) After Kentucky Fried Chicken, we went for a walk. There is actually a roadway here--we weren't walking on water, though the river was very high, with lots of overflow in low areas.
Back home, we indulged in my traditional orange cake, this time with chocolate drizzles. It was delicious!
And the maple tree in the back yard has finally turned colors--just in time for my birthday.

Dedicated to Deborah, our Optimist

An Optimist fell ten stories,

And at each window bar
He shouted to friends

and family below...

"Well, I'm all right so far!"

And the amazing thing is, that somehow she always lands safely!

Deborah, are your guardian angels working overtime, helping with all the things you've got going on in your life right now? (Master's studies, teaching, performing, church calling, dating and occasionally sleeping......)

Things we learned last weekend

We learned a few things on our trip last weekend...

...don't forget my overnight case. (A trip over the river and into Wisconsin, to a Walmart, and crisis solved!)

...don't build an all-wood cabin for our home in Idaho. (We had been thinking of doing that). There is NO insulation in the walls--they look beautiful but you can hear people talking in the other rooms even though doors are closed. I had plenty of time to ponder this as I lay awake far into the night. Some of the other guests were a group of women on a husband-less-antique-and-quilt-shopping weekend. They stayed up late talking yet that wasn't keeping me awake. It was the occasional bursts of cackling or exclamation that would come just as I was about to drop off. At that point, I wasn't sure I ever wanted to go to a bed & breakfast again.
If we had a home like that, with visiting grandchildren, if one cried in the night, everyone would hear it.

...take more weekend trips!!

Weekend Retreat

Something new to do: stay in a bed-and-breakfast. We found one that sounded nice--a cabin setting. I've always liked rustic Americana.

And we had SUNSHINE! Glorious blue skies, vibrant colors of leaves. Not a sign of civilization, either on our side of the Mississippi, or on the Wisconsin side. And I was glad that I had read first, the Red River Girl book, as it gave lots of background for the settling of this area.
It was fun chatting with another couple as we waited for breakfast, which was a huge affair--fried potatoes, bacon, sausage, scrambled eggs, thick slices of decadent french toast. Good thing we were planning on doing a lot of hiking! (And we weren't hungry until mid-afternoon). Pike's Peak State park was a couple of miles away and the trails and lookouts over the Mississippi River were spectacular. Why haven't we taken the family here before?

(It's less than two hours away).

The morning was chilly; pleasant by noon. And the sunshine felt soooo good! We also visited Effigy Mounds National Monument. It has been 24 years since we last visited here--Ryan was a 1-year-old toddler. We saw a bald eagle flying over the water below us. We saw large V's of migrating birds.

But best of all, was just being with my sweetheart. It is hard to believe we've been married for 30 years--how time flies when you are having fun!

What's with all the rain???

October. Blue skies, autumn leaves, crisp nights and bright days.

Except for this year. We've had twice the rain in the first half of the month that Idaho has had in the last YEAR.

I'm grateful today...

...that Kevin is home tonight! He was able to get on an earlier flight from Chicago to Cedar Rapids than the one he was scheduled to fly on, and as he drove out of the CR airport to come home, he got one of those automated phone calls from the travel agency: the flight he was booked on had been cancelled due to bad weather and the next flight was tomorrow morning. (I'm grateful he is such a savvy traveler!)

...that the rain is supposed to stop tomorrow and the sun is going to shine on Saturday! Kevin and I are going to a bed & breakfast tomorrow night, in Macgregor--a little town on the Mississippi where there are hills and hardwood forests, and maybe the leaves will be at their peak for color! This is our big hurrah for our 30th anniversary.

Time to decorate for Halloween?

Once upon a time, we created "Mitch", who watched over our front porch. That must have been the time that Kevin was in Japan, because we took his jeans, an old shirt, a John Deere hat, and even his gloves and shoes, and stuffed them with leaves--lots of dry leaves!
I won't comment on the costumes (?) Justin, Ryan and Deborah are wearing.... (Justin was still recovering from his broken arm).

Thumb-sucking runs in the family...

Seeing Marta, my granddaughter, with her thumb in her mouth reminded me of her father..

.

You asked for it--you got it!

DEATH BY CHOCOLATE ("DER TOD VOR SCHOKOLADE")

First, the actual recipe:
1 9x13 Pan of brownies, baked
2 pkgs chocolate Mousse, prepared
1 large container Cool Whip
8 Heath Bars, crushed (or a pkg of Brickle Bits)
1 c pecans, chopped
Crumble the brownies and place 1/2 in a large bowl. Spread 1/2 of the mousse over the brownies pieces, then 1/2 of the Cool Whip, then Heath bar pieces then the nuts. Repeat all steps. Refrigerate for several hours or overnight. Serves 12-15 people. This is fun in a clear-glass bowl, so you can see the layers. I often do it in three layers instead of two.

Now, my reality:

• instead of Mousse, I use instant chocolate pudding.
• I like mini-chocolate chips instead of the Heath Bars, simply because I am more likely to have them on hand.
• I don't usually put the nuts in.

This is probably the Death By Chocolate that you remember. I should have taken a picture of it on Friday night, but wasn't thinking! And I'm not going to make it again just for a photo. My waistline couldn't take that!

I am grateful for...

...laying in my snug, warm bed this morning, listening to rain on the roof. We have such a comfortable home!

...the convenience and swiftness of email so I don't have to worry if Kevin made it safely to France. I wonder how, in centuries past, those wives endured when their husbands went overseas for missions, or war, and didn't have communication for months!

...the ease of photography and how many pictures we have of the children (more now than when Catherine was the baby and we were poor students being careful with our money--and getting slides developed was "expensive".) I think we have more pictures of our grandchildren already than all the pictures of our children!

Just another Saturday

First of all, Happy Birthday to my mom! She is 88 years old today! (And doesn't look a day over 65). I just hope I have the same ability to live long and prosper!

***

Second, a group of us (5 couples) went to the community theatre last evening to watch a fun play--a murder mystery, with some laughs and a twist in the plot at the end. Thoroughly enjoyable! A woman from our ward is in the play and we thought it would be fun to support her. Afterwards, it was "Death by Chocolate" at our house. Having company is nice as then the house gets extra clean.

The only glitch in the evening was that Kevin wasn't there. Alice went with me as my companion, since Kevin was over the Atlantic, on his way to France. This trip came up suddenly--too suddenly for me to arrange to go with him (which would have been fun to do as our 30th anniversary is coming up!).

By the way, he made it safe and sound this morning.

And still more things that have been keeping me busy...

For Emma's birthday, I FINALLY got the book finished that relates our experiences together during our visit to Guam and Japan. I hope it has arrived safely! It was super fun to do and made me remember just how much I miss her, and Marta, and Ryan and Jamie. I am so looking forward to them living back on the same continent next year! Another thing that has been keeping me busy is doing name indexing. I am still doing some name extraction work as well, but eventually that will be done away and everything switched over to indexing through FamilySearchIndexing.org. (See the article in the August Ensign for more information). I have done over 2500 names since the last week of August. In our YW program, we are doing this as a service project. The girls have been challenged to do 500 names by Christmas. Then a Scout in our ward has incorporated it as part of his Eagle project. So I am keeping track of my hours to report to him. So far in October: 13 hours. (Hmmm, maybe that's why I haven't got my books read yet...)

A post a day...

I was inspired by Jamie's "post-a-day" showing what the girls were doing. And Justin said since we've been doing blogs, we haven't been writing letters. So taking these two random bits of information, I've decided to be more consistent in sharing what's happening here in Baileyville. Tune in daily!

Other things keeping me busy

Gardening still keeps me busy--fall is the time for clearing out, cleaning up, and reorganizing the flower beds. Then there is mowing the lawn, as much to mulch up the fallen leaves as to cut the grass, which is growing slower these shorter days. (It is now dark when we get up in the morning.)

The roses are moved (gardening keeps Kevin busy too, as he did all the digging here). I've loved having them in front of the house, but now that the tree is getting larger, there was too much shade. They will be happier in their new spots by the fence. And I planted new daffodil, crocus, and hyacinth bulbs in the yard, looking forward to their spring blooming! And of course, the thing that keeps me busiest is parenting. We're at the stage where my advice and comments are not welcome, where "I can do it myself!" is just as fervent as at the two-year-old stage. And almost as untrue. Then humility comes back, with an apology, and then niceness. Parenting seems to be a roller coaster experience.

I was reading in the newspaper last night and this short piece caught my eye: The Sound of Music: Tune up your brain.

"You know those seemingly endless hours your parents made you spend practicing the piano or learning to play the violin?

"Time to say thank you, because all that practice did more than tune up your recital skills. It may have made the language areas of your brain more efficient, too. If you never took music lessons, here's why you should start.

"Researchers recently asked a group of musicians and nonmusicians to listen to--and reproduce--tone sequences. Not surprisingly, the musicians performed better on the task. But this was a surprise: As the musicians reproduced the tones, scans of their brains showed major activity in areas linked to language, leading researachers to conclude that building music skills may bolster language areas of the brain as well. In other words, studying music is like doing push-ups for your brain."

Maybe that's because music IS another language! (But they are right--it is very beneficial.)

Things keeping me busy lately...

With the publishing in the Ensign of a pamphlet on food storage, I was reminded that we were not very organized in our storage. I'm pretty sure we have enough of the basics--wheat, beans, rice.

But then it was mentioned that we should have a 3-month supply of the things we normally use, and I knew we didn't have that. Thus, a project was born. Kevin "loves" it when I say something on the order of , "Honey, I think we need more shelves downstairs."

We already had shelves (built by Kevin several years ago) but they were spaced widely, for holding big boxes. So, if I began to put in cans and small boxes, I could only stack it part-way up and a lot of space was wasted.

So Kevin immediately got out his tape measure and began the plans. Within a few days, the new shelves were in (you can see the lighter, newer wood inbetween the old shelves). Wow, now I can fill them up, and I did!

The only problem is keeping my system intact. I've already noticed that stuff put away by others is in different spots than what I had planned. Do I just do all the putting away myself, or do I periodically straighten it up?

At General Conference, I take out all the foods in the 72-hour kits (backpacks!), and we get to eat it! (This is an idea I picked up in Relief Society a couple of years ago). It's fun snacking on the special things (trail mix, granola bars, juice cans, even candy) as we listen to Conference.

Then I replace those items, so that if we ever do have to use those kits, the food will actually be edible. I also try to put in items that have the furthest-away expiration dates--hopefully, a year or longer. That way I don't have to replace everything, every six months.

It has been educational doing this, as we've found things that I wouldn't want to have to eat. For example, don't make your own trail mix--the nuts go rancid! Keep the nuts, dried fruits, etc. in their original packaging.

So, this fall, we're a little closer to being ready for the future!

Which to read first....

Hmmm. I hate dilemmas! The book interest group chose a book by Sheri Dew to read.
















But then, Aunt Ida and Aunt Jeannine were talking about "Sink Reflections" this summer, and when I saw it at the bookstore, I grabbed it.


















Then, I saw a book at The Book Nook, published in 1893, with that delicious smell of an old book. And it looks like a romance. That's intriguing!



















But at the library I saw a new youth book about the French/Indians who settled St. Paul, Minnesota. Ooh, I love historical fiction! (And I never knew that the Red River Valley--in an old song--was in Minnesota & Manitoba, Canada!)

So, which do I read first?

A Bit of October

October!

Time to bring out the fall decorations, for my second favorite season, after Christmas. I love crisp mornings, warm afternoons, the earthy smell of leaves on the ground, the crunch as I walk through them. But maybe you noticed the green outside the windows. Fall is a little late arriving this year! Maybe that's because we've had a good amount of rain.

And a good amount of heat--86 degrees yesterday.

A couple of times in the past week, we've been warmer than Las Vegas!

Don't look too closely, as Alice still has wet hair from her shower. We were just out stretching our legs a bit before watching General Conference.

That reminds me of another reason I love October. I've always loved listening to the Conference. It is such a peaceful time. And this was no exception.

I prayed for Elder Wirthlin to be able to finish his talk; I thought Elder Holland's talk on the Trinity was one of the best explanations I'd heard; and I want to be known as a mother "who knows", and to have clean hands AND a pure heart.

Yes, General Conference was good.

The Way We Look Today...

well, actually, the way we looked on Saturday night. The stake had a nice dance and it is a good thing pictures were taken early in the evening--before we were hot and sweaty from dancing a lot. By the time we went home, I had taken off the shoes and was going barefoot. After a summer of open-toed shoes and sandals, I'm not ready for "real" shoes. I almost feel the way I did as a child, when we went barefoot all summer long and Sundays were torture, because we had to put on shoes!
But as the recent frosty weather reminded us, shoes will soon be a necessity.

And, as I'm ruminating here, I suppose I ought to write about how much I love to dance. I am SO fortunate to have a husband willing to dance as well. We always get compliments on our dancing (and it's nothing special, believe me). I feel sorry for the women who would love to be out dancing, but their husbands refuse ("don't want to look foolish"). Dancing is such a romantic date with your loved one!

Calling All Roofers!

The July 16 hail storm killed our roof. Mind you, the insurance adjuster said it was a very well constructed roof. And he said that without even knowing that we had done it ourselves. But, there were enough "hits" that all the shingles will need to be taken off and redone. Hence, I think it's time for Deborah, Justin and Ryan to come on home! Just think of all the fun we could have...
laying new shingles
and taking out our frustrations!
We have 6 months to get the work done. Anyone want to come for Thanksgiving??? We'd even pay you. Wasn't $5/hour the going rate back then? We'll top that! How about $6? (With no taxes taken out, of course). Think about it and get back to us as soon as you can!

The Bushes Have Moved

It is hard to believe, but we actually removed 4 (four!) big bushes out of the front garden area. I know, you are saying, "But it still looks full and complete. Where could there have been other bushes?"

You are right. That's why they are now gone. It was actually TOO crowded. I had begun to feel like I was entering our house through a jungle... The frontal view does look a bit more open now!
And here is where two of the bushes went. Now they can be free to fulfill the measure of their creation, growing big and beautiful, instead of having to be severely trimmed back. I'm sure they will be happy--once they get over transplant-shock. So where did the other plants go? One is in another garden (it is a flowering shrub), but the 4th one is now planted in the "forest". It's a good thing the "forest" is there as a repository for the plants that are still good, just no longer needed in our yard, like surplus irises, day lilies, hostas, blue rug junipers, etc. One end of it has nice blooms at various times in the summer!

And that's how our weekend went. How was yours?

Labor Day

The trampoline, the swingset, and lots of digging. That about sums up our Labor day!

We were so happy to have Connor, Brenna and Alastair come visiting--and wished Emma and Marta were here to play with their cousins.

All the pictures are courtesy of Elizabeth!

Does that look like a happy grandma! And here's a hopping grandpa... literally.

Connor was a bit tentative about the trampoline at first, but once some neighbor children showed up and demonstrated how fun it was, then that became the place to be all weekend. There was even an hour of jumping before heading for home on Tuesday morning. And when the afternoon got hot, the sprinkler added to the experience! But I mostly included this to show Kevin and Aaron with the wheelbarrow. They unloaded a friend's trailer of mulch/dirt and spread it in various gardens, as well as dug up and moved two arbivitaes and one other bush to put along the new fence, which is looking REALLY good. We moved plants out of several gardens and Aaron helped Kevin plant them out in the field, until Aaron's allergies started kicking up. By the way, this must be a bad year for pollens because Elizabeth and Alice are bothered as well.
Catherine and I (and Alastair), began planting irises she had brought from Wisconsin, as well as roses and other things we'd planned. Alastair liked his bouncer and also napped quite well so we got a lot done, even though it was a hot and sweaty day. As the day heated up, we went inside and watched a movie.
And somewhere during the weekend, we even made it up to the school playground. Wish we had a picture of Brenna in the swing. But then, that's where Brenna ALWAYS is. And there are tears when she can't be outside.
On our last evening, we even got in a game of croquet, and then Bocce, until the mosquitos drove us indoors. All that recent rain has brought a large hatching of the pests!

The view from here...

For the past 7 days, this has been what Iowa skies have looked like, more or less. Some days there were brief periods of sunshine. Others, no sunshine at all. With another 2 inches of rain last night, our total is now over ten for the week. That's almost a third of what we usually get in a year. On the radio this morning, there was a list of school cancellations due to flooding. I've never heard that before. Due to snow, yes, flooding, no.

In the midst of all this, all the growing things are bright green--like it should be April (spring showers and all). Normally, August is hot, dry, brown. I think we can safely put away all the talk about a drought for this year.
Our magnolia tree even thinks it is spring and has three blossoms opening right now! (Or maybe it is just making up for not blooming this spring because of the late frost).