November 2021 – Asbery's Echoes

Working on the Weekend

We had a nice quiet Thanksgiving. We spent the day at Dad and Mom’s along with Eric, Jeremy and Abby, and the grandkids. We had a delicious lunch of turkey and dressing, mashed potatoes and gravy, cranberry sauce, green bean casserole, veggie tray and Pam Cake. Pam Cake is made by a local lady and is so delicious. She made over 100 cakes as a fund raiser to make money to buy a piano for her church! There were a lot of Pam Cakes eaten over the weekend I’m sure! We spent the afternoon playing games and enjoying each others company. And I didn’t take one picture the whole day.

The rest of the weekend was spent cutting down trees and splitting logs at Dad and Mom’s. From morning until dark. I always dread the thought of doing this but once we get out there and get started I really do enjoy it. Being outside in the fresh air, the physical exertion. Just being able to see the finished product after a day of hard work is so satisfying. Now Dad has enough wood chopped and stacked to get him through the winter in his shop and so does Joe along with wood for next year’s campfires. I think we enjoy the campfires more because of the hard work that’s put into it rather than just buying some that’s already cut and split. And now the timber is looking a little bit better too, which makes Dad feel better.

Blessed Assurance, Beth Twist, Heartstring Samplery

In the evenings when we settled in I worked on this piece. I love this hymn and the song would go through my head as I was stitching! Beth Twist of Heartstring Samplery has introduced a new piece each month of this year based on a church hymn and this is November’s piece. I haven’t had time to stitch every design yet but when this one came out I knew it was one that I would have to stitch right away. I got up early in the mornings to stitch and worked on it every night. I watched the Prime series Victoria while stitching in the mornings before anyone else got up. I’m really enjoying watching that. I can’t imagine what her life must really have been like. I’m sure she never had to split her own logs for the fire but maybe she missed out on something there!

Busy Times

Drew decided out of the blue that he wanted a pet in the house. I thought we were finally past that and even though I sometimes missed having a four legged critter around, the work entailed kept me from not missing it too much! Then all of a sudden Drew started asking again. His choices, a hamster, a fish or a kitten. I said no to a fish. Cleaning out a fish tank is not my idea of fun! A hamster only lives for a very short time. And we had this beautiful little kitten living outside already. Plus, mice control! So, we now have Milkweed inside. Millie for short. Milkweed is one of five that we brought home from my folks’ to raise as their momma disappeared. We bottle fed them all. One didn’t make it, two disappeared and unfortunately Drew ran over one with the Mule. A hard lesson for him but he pays a lot more attention now when he’s driving something. So now I’m busy with a kitten in the house. Oh the messes she makes. Especially when I forget to put my threads away for the night.

Peace Be To This House – designed to be a Christmas ornament but I love it so much I plan to frame it. It’s teeny tiny – stitched on 40 ct and so very sweet.

A sampler I stitched years ago and decided to finally frame. Simple Joys, Simple Life.

Sweet little freebies from Pinker n Punkin Quilting. Perfect for ornaments for the kids. Now to decide on how to finish them.

Which leads to stitching! I’m always busy stitching! I’ve framed a few that I dug out of my finished pile to enjoy and I’ve stitched some new things. I am caught up on orders which is a great feeling. Now to work on the kids’ ornaments for last year and this year. And maybe get a jump on next year’s too!

Making gifts for birthdays and Christmas is keeping me busy too. I made two sets of these Advent Christmas ornaments. One for the grandkids and one for Drew. We’re all ready for December 1st!

I’ve cleaned out my bedroom closet and have a pile of clothes that no longer fit. Now to decide whether to keep them or give them away. I don’t plan to gain weight again but I’m still a little leary of getting rid of them all. And Drew and I cleaned and organized the bathroom cupboards. I have this goal of getting each room picked up and organized. Unfortunately neat and tidy is extremely hard for me! But I’m working on it!

This past weekend we had beautiful weather and decided to take advantage of it and spend time at my folks’ cutting down trees and splitting wood. For some reason I always dread the thought of this but once we get started, it’s work that I really enjoy. Their timbers were destroyed after the storm that went through earlier this year and Dad has been wanting to get some of the downed trees taken care of so that’s what we worked on. Some of the trees were already down, some needed to come down. Joe did most of the downing and cutting while I used the splitter to split the logs and Mom, Dad and Drew stacked the logs on the trailer. We were all tired by the time we were finished last night, and cold too as the wind had picked up and the temperature dropped, but it was such a great feeling to have gotten so much accomplished! And boy did I sleep good!

Drew and Rambler took a nap while waiting for the work to get started!

The garden is cleaned off and put to rest for the winter. The chickens have been cleaned out and bedded down for cold weather. The flowers are all sleeping. I love this time of year. I love all the seasons and am thankful I live where we get to enjoy each one. But I love this season the best. I enjoy the darker days and the time we are able to spend slowing down. A time for lamps and soft light and blankets to cuddle up in. I look forward to the holidays but even more, I look forward to that time after the holidays. It’s almost like we’re being given permission to settle in for a time. To be calm and quiet. To reflect on what has passed and to get ready for the what is to come. It’s my favorite time of the year.

Enjoying the Outdoors

It was a cool crisp morning. The clouds were beautiful and the sun was shining. It was a beautiful day to enjoy the park.

We’ve had such beautiful weather the past few days. Beautiful fall days mean getting outside and soaking in the sunshine as much as we can before it turns cold for good.

Last week Drew and I decided to visit Yenruogis to hunt for rocks. He’s studying geology in science and we wanted to have rocks on hand to study. Spur of the moment we decided to give a shout out to the homeschool group we get together with once in awhile and see if they wanted to join us. We met Thursday morning, the kids wandered all over the park and then we ate a picnic lunch. It was actually pretty cold that day but when the sun popped out it was nice and the scenery was beautiful!

Yenruogis is a small park just outside of our little town and we always seem to forget it is there. The lake was originally a quarry. There is primitive camping and lots of places for picnics. You can walk all the way around the lake, which the kids did. We really need to take advantage of this great place more than we do and we plan to. It’s also a great place to go sledding in the winter.

Lake Darling – the kids love walking over this bridge!

Then Abby asked if we would want to meet at Lake Darling on Saturday to walk the trails. So we got up early, packed our lunch and met her and the grandkids at our favorite camping spot. It was a beautiful day, sunny and warm. The kids played for awhile at the playground, we ate our picnic lunch and then walked the trails. It was nice to enjoy each other’s company and to get outside in the fresh air.