happy october!

i really feel like i wake up in october.
especially this october 1st.
pouring rain all day and night yesterday, but muggy.
then we wake to cool, crisp and cloudy.
since i've been away for so long, i thought i'd share some photos from the day. we had lunch next door at the pizza place and then went to weaver's orchard with nana. it turned sunny and breezy. absolutely beautiful! we came home with quite a haul of apples for pies, pumpkins for pies, decorating and carving, apple cider doughnuts, apple fritters, broccoli and tomatoes, acorn and butternut squash. can you tell i love fall??? we have a birthday coming...(someone will be 8!) and an anniversary (11 years!) i will try to keep you posted. i'm hoping to get back into the swing of this blogging business. i miss it, actually!
hope you are having a wonderful first of october!

*********

some farm animals at the orchard...nana loved this one!

cute bunnies...

i loved this goat on its...goat ramp? if i had a barn, i'd have goats and i'd have a goat ramp, too.

little pumpkins, big pumpkins.

pumpkin picking...

eli wanted a "humungo" one!

thank you, nana, for a wonderful day! we love you!!! xoxox

oh, and, some fall knitting...shalom(ravelry)(free pattern found here)!

happy birthday to me! (and a week of media free)

yep, that's right...a skating party was planned on my behalf by my very dear daughter and cooperative husband! this party was the grand finale to a weekend of birthday fun!

saturday, we packed up to go to my parent's house...where we dropped off the kids for an overnight stay...somewhere! i had no idea what was in store for me! we headed off to central pennsylvania, to a small town called columbia. it's about 40 minutes south of harrisburg on the susquehanna river. we went to a local market/bizarre thing to browse around. we met two really nice women selling their handknits/handspun and they had wheels with them...so i was all ga-ga over them. we left there and went straight to the pharmacy across the street. totally old fashioned place: a diner in the front with locals staring as we walked in. odd toys and bits for sale amidst balm, toothpaste and remedies. i purchased a small schleich lamb...to put up for inspiration to one day own a real one! we walked around the town a bit, then drove a bit to hike over to chickie's rock. a really beautiful view of the susquehanna(didn't take my own photo, so here's a borrowed one). from there, we drove north on 441 to harrisburg for a great tapas dinner at suba. YUM...loved every morsel. we high-tailed it out of there to lancaster, for some possible contra dancing, but finding ourselves a little on the tired end, decided on coffee and dessert at the prince street cafe. (ps-we even saw our friends' son's photo on the wall - christopher burkholder will be playing there in march!) (pps-the contra dancing WILL happen next month!)
so, not knowing where we were staying, i started to ask questions...and little by little realized we were heading to the exact same place we stayed on our wedding night! this AMAZING bed and breakfast that has a detached spring house - 3 floors, fireplace in the living room, cozy bedroom and roomy bathroom...and the breakfast is soooooo good! it was all too much! i was beaming from ear to ear!
we awoke to snow falling lightly...ate the amazing peach-french toast breakfast and went back to the spring house for fireside coffee, bible time and knitting. oh, it was good!
from there we headed to shillington...to skateaway! when chris asked stella what she wanted to do that was "special for mama" she said, "we HAVE to go roller skating!"...so we did. my parents, sisters, brothers-in-law, nephews, and friends, loren, rich, milja and iona all joined us! hilariously fun. (and kinda good in the workout way) SO memorable. we ended up back at my sister, lura's house for pizza, cupcakes and icecream...and gifts! can it get better? oh yes it can...in addition to some girly gifts from my sister and a neti pot from loren and rich, my parents, sister, husband and in-laws all went in on this for me:

a zojirushi home bakery supreme! holy cow! all ingredients are in now for honey wheat bread now, timer set to have freshly baked bread at 6:30am! oh yes!! this thing is amazing...says it can bake all sorts of breads, prepare doughs, create a sourdough starter/bread, make jam, make a meatloaf miracle (love that name), and create your own recipes. this is ridiculously exciting for me!

i am a blessed woman!

so...what a weekend! and i do have some photos for sharing...but will have to wait on them, as it is getting late! however, dear friends, our family has committed to something BIG this week.

we are having a Media-Free Week. no tv. no dvds. no videos. no computer(gulp). no blogs/blogging. no googling. no facebooking(like i do it anyway!) we need to reclaim some peace and quiet in our lives, so this is a big step towards that. we'll see if chris and i can agree to possibly on posting photos of the weekend...but i can't promise it! i do have to much to catch up on, too...some sad, some wonderful...but it will all wait until after next sunday. so, thank you all for the well-wishing on this day, and i hope you have a lovely week. we'll be eating lots of bread. and maybe some jam. and possibly a meatloaf miracle. i'll let you know. next week.

visions of sugar plums

**edited to add more photos...

::::be forewarned:::a TON of photos follow:::::



the night before christmas,
when all through the house,
not a creature was stirring......

oh, yeah, sure! the kids would NOT go to bed. so at 11:30pm (i'm totally serious!) we closed the door and said a stern - stay in there! we heard racket, but ignored it as last minute assembly took place. after everything was ready to go for the morning, i checked in on them and found this...snuggled together in stella's bed!



we were so excited for the morning. thanks to all of the "santas" in our life, we had this abundantly gifted tree and a glorious overnight-stuffed-french toast prepped (recipe from mrs. slaboda in georgia...thank you!!). i wish i could draw arrows to each gift and show how each and everything came from someone else's gift to us...again...THANK YOU! we are still overwhelmed by God's providence and grace and kingdom and family and......

the morning arrived, much to our delight. we tortured the kids by making them wait in our bedroom or the kitchen, doors all closed, until grammy and boppa arrived. promptly at 8am, the big moment came. love the look here!


eli was a more subdued sort of shock. i didn't have just the right photo to show his quiet joy...but this one is close. the soft haze, the cookie on the arm of the couch (he nibbled it slowly throughout the morning) and his satisfaction with this little dinosaur...he's a grateful boy.
a monster montage. he loves these toys so very much!

and his parking garage, from plan toys.***see note at bottom about this company!***

mamma eeked out one handmade gift this year (as opposed to last years craziness)...this puppet theatre. greatly inspired by this book, but improvised based on what i had in my stash. the only things purchased for this, were 50cent dowels and a $3 tension rod! chris and i had a blast with the puppets...super eli and princess stella, of course!

this from grammy and boppa...eli can truly wail this ball across our yard!

and for stella from grammy and boppa, furnished by aunt lauren and uncle chad, with extras from mamma and daddy (via our santas!) (this is another plan toys gift...seriously love them!)


the BIG gifts were bikes...the gravel blaster!

and the schwinn stardust...

*note about the lack of helmets. we are ardent in our use of helmets; however, they were yet to be gifted from nana and papa, and well, we had to enjoy one short ride with the new bikes. we were very careful and will not do it again. promise!

**note about the shoes on stella...yep, go ahead, zoom in if you can! love these hand-me-down converse gingerbread men!!! we had some fun holiday attire thanks to my students!

***note about plan toys. oh man. this company. we got eli the roadway system last year and love it. all wood. all green. safe and fun and very cute. so we got the parking garage this year. the little elevator had a broken piece (very small and minor). since we bought it online, we were having some trouble exchanging it. plan toys offers replacement parts on their website. so i filled out the info and emailed it in, hoping to buy a new elevator. i receive an email from their customer service rep saying that part is unavailable in the usa, so they are sending us an entire NEW parking garage and to please donate or recycle this one! it's 3 weeks old! and played with everyday! i can't believe it! so we HIGHLY recommend this company...for so many reasons!

*******so thank you to all of our friends and family who gifted to us so very generously and deeply from their hearts and wallets. with all of this, remember that you also met our daily needs. you paid our bills. our necessities were met thanks to you. and we know that ultimately those gifts from you were truly from our Father. and that you would want everyone to know that too. the new year has already promised to be a year of blessing and abundance to us. look forward to another post of crazy generosity and abundance coming soon-ish. *******

i could keep on going, but this is already too long. i'll save the rest for another post. xoxoxox

the times...

are tough...

i was telling rachel how it has been hard for me to post, because things seem too negative and rough to share. funny thing is, they haven't been awful. in fact, i'd say things are going well and getting better.

and then we have bumps in the road. or head on collisions.

i am hoping for some prayer from my blogging friends.
my grandmother had back surgery last week to free some tangled nerves that were debilitating her. after a successful surgery and pain free week in physical therapy, she woke up monday morning with a high fever and a diagnosed staph infection, which, the doctor's say, could be MRSA. she's been transferred to the hospital, of course, and is undergoing lots of tests to find out where the infection is (MRI, blood cultures, etc). please pray for her recovery...healing. she's 86. a widow.

then this morning my mom called me early. mommom is ok, mom is on the way to the hospital to see her and talk to her docs. but my sister, lura, called my mom in tears. her sister-in-law called her to say they found her mother-in-law in bed, unconscious. when the paramedics came, her heart stopped. she's at the hospital now, and i don't have any updates. chris, my brother-in-law, lost his father about 4-5 years ago. he was very young (55?). chris is very sweet and loving. please pray for chris, lura and jonas (their baby boy). please pray for cheryl, his mom, lura's mother-in-law. please pray for chris' brother and sister, his niece and nephews.

sometimes, you just don't know where to begin.

birthday weekend...

ooooohhhhhh am i tired! we've had a wonderfully exhausting weekend full of celebrating stella's fifth year! i will be so happy to share photos (i'm back to film) after they are developed! hopefully tomorrow...for now...i'm hitting the sack...

thank you to everyone that helped me and contributed to making stella feel so special...especially loren and rich...they gave their time, house, friendship...i love you guys!!!! and my sisters who supplied cake, snacks, nail polish, face painting...oh the joy!!! and my mama, who made caramel apples, marshmallow fairy-mushroom-snacks!

it was so great...but i'm seriously falling asleep right here...so off to bed and photos will be up soon!

down time...

chris just took stella to see ratatouille (for her, again)...just to get some daddy-daughter time in. it's too hot to do anything else. so what am i doing, you ask? well, dressing eli up in knee socks (his request) and trying to finish a lap quilt for stella from amy karol's bend-the-rules sewing book (that i've gone nuts over). it's done except for the binding...hopefully tonight! i have no idea when i will have a photo as our camera is on the fritz!! i'll have to borrow a friends again!(thanks loren or lura!)

anywhooooo.....later we'll head to the farm to grab more veggies. my box from the market on thursday is already dwindling!!! the kids (and chris & me) go nuts over the organic heirloom tomatoes, corn, eggplant, yellow watermelon, peppers, squash, etc....its unbelievably delicious! it makes me happy to feed my family, i tell ya! can you see that i'm excited here??!!!!!!!!! (too much punctuation!!!)

alrighty....just wanted to check in...more depth next time! back to the quilt!

vacation at nana and papa's

well we had a wonderful week away. i am hoping to update with some photos tomorrow. we had a rainy but fun week in pennsylvania. i am blessed with a wonderful family. my mom and dad take care of anyone and everyone around them. me and the kids included! we spent time hanging out side, in the baby pool, rides on tractors, grilling, hammocking, all sorts of country fun.

but i must tell the sewing machine story!
i took my old singer 401a to a place to get it fixed (threads were breaking and tension was off)...my sister had heard of this guy irwin leininger who was excellent w/ any machine. well...he's been dead for 8 years apparently. but apparently his brother in law learned a lot from him...ed lives next door. so the next hour and a half was spent with ed in the little shack that used to be a machine repair shop tinkering around. he showed me how to adjust and diagnose my tension problems (he thinks i should never have to take it in for repair on account of tension!) he also pointed out that my needle was in backwards. i swear i checked and double checked....but it was. how embarrassing. it is sewing like a charm again. so top things off, there were a host of old sewing tables sitting around...the kind you mount your machine right in. and you guessed it...he custom fit one for my machine and gave it to me for $20. how amazing is that.

i'm out of time today...but will post more about the week when i find some time. unpacking and stealing time w/ chris is taking priority right now!!!

oh...and the Project of the month stuff will be finished soon...sorry for the delay!!!

in over my head...

whew! what a weekend...and it's only saturday!

thursday started it all w/ a follow up visit to eli's g.i. doctor. he didn't like how little eli gained (again) and scheduled an endoscopy to biopsy eli's stomach monday morning. i freaked out. there are no symptoms except low weight gain to signify such a procedure (which includes anesthesia, intubation and biopsying the tummy)...nope not doin' it. no way. i refused. which brings me to my now diligent schedule of feeding eli. i will fatten the boy. i will feed him stuff he will eat at every meal. if that means brocolli for breakfast, by-golly that's what he'll eat.

argh.

then stella got a cold. yep, again. fever, cough, runny nose. the whole works.

and we are babysitting my 3 nephews at my sisters house in PA till sunday. shoulda been fun. instead, tired and boring for the kids, as stella is sick, and i'm stuck inside w/ her. today was supposed to be a trip to charis' wedding shower...but can't go. chris took the "big boys" (aka brennan and landis) to papa's house to do some mulching and tree-trimming. hopefully tonight we can do campfire hotdogs and s'mores. we did watch the spongebob squarepants movie last night. chris and i both thought it was funny. ashamed to admit that, a bit.

ok...seems like i'm rambling on. must need an ear.

also realized today that i missed my very best friends birthday this week and i feel like crap. happy belated birthday, rachel...i hope you enjoyed yourself and i hope to talk to you soon! i love you!!!


alright...i'll stop whining...
big sigh.
i'm gonna go do some laundry. yeah!!

another week(end) goes by...

wow. my last post was "weekend review" and here i am with another one! time has been flying around here.

to start i'd like to wish my dear hubby a very happy birthday today!! stella and i made him his favorite cherry pie from scratch...mmmmmm.....


oh where to start... we had a wonderful weekend in the "country" (or so we pretend). it all began thursday morning with a train ride to exton, pa (the good ole R5) where my sister, lura, picked us up for a day of fun. we went straight to wawa for coffee, then onto the harley davidson dealership for a birthday gift for her boss (that was funny). after delivering the gift, we went to her house. grilled up some really yummy turkey burgers with fresh sage (they were SO good) and got to the gardening...here is a little taste:

stella working

From general

hands in the dirt

From general

watering

From general

eli helps

From general

the next day we went to "nana and papa's" in parkesburg, pa (aka my folks). here we spent time with mommom (my grandmother), did some fun in the sun stuff, some birthday-boy shopping (the summer of the polo shirt), and some more yard work. not many photos of the latter, since i was covered in mulch, digging up hard earth and planting lots of pretty flowers.
another taste:
fun in the sun...making wishes for princesses

From general

yard work...eli with papa

From general

my souvenir...from lura's garden, beautiful peonies with the sweetest smell...

From general

we ended it with a smith family picnic with yard games, grilling and friends on sunday. memorial day included a memorial service at the world war 2 memorial across the street (it always get me crying...thinking of my poppop...and that generation), out to breakfast at le bus in manayunk, used bookstore shopping, some clean-up, pizza and ice cream...
all in all, a very good weekend.
hoping to slow down a bit this week...get some crafting done while enjoying the almost 90 degree sunshine.