heartbreaking...

 Since when...has it been even remotely acceptable to rejoice when someone is brutally murdered?  This has made me heartsick.  The coldness, the indifference...it's psychopathic.  

September 11th is a poignant, sad day as it is, but today is like a bad dream.  We know things will get worse in this world, but the hate is still unbelievable.  

God created us, gave us this earth, and here we are.  My favorite verse is Behold, how good and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! (psalm 133).    

Here are some random pictures...

Orange Guy likes the new bedding in the guest room.

The trees are turning!

Old Kitty...

I got to rock this baby last evening, he's so sweet!  

Life goes on.  I saw this and it really comforted me, so I'll share it with you...

You all have a good day.

oh, hit me up!

 Pumpkin spice, love love love it.  The sugar part though, ugh.  On a trip to the park last week, we stopped at Starbucks, and I decided to get two pumps of pumpkin in my iced Americano, I would not get the normal, which is SIX.  Char ordered pumpkin cold foam on hers, and guess what?  Mine came with it too.  Well.  I didn't really want the extra sugar, but shh, it was SO good.  

To satisfy this all encompassing pumpkin passion, I buy a bag of Starbucks pumpkin spice coffee every fall.  I can mix a scoop with some regular coffee, make a pour over that's not overpowering, just a nice strong hint of pumpkin spice.  

Today's the first one of the year, and it's extra special because today I went to Trader Joe's with Mariel.  There is such a thing as Salted Maple Cold Foam.  There was one can left, so I bought it.  It only has two grams of sugar, but that's if you get the full 85 servings from the can, ha.  Anyway, I added some to my pumpkin spice coffee, and it's SO good without being sugary or over-flavored.  

Camille went with us to T.J's, and summed it up like this:  We made it worthwhile to come here without getting too much junk we don't need.   That is always the hope.  One bag of chocolate chips, two bags of their movie theater popcorn, one container of milk chocolate peanut butter cups (the cashier said the dark ones are better...), two bags of orange chicken, one half gallon whole milk chocolate milk, Ezekial bread, the gummy sea creatures (no artificial dyes), Halloween spooky bats and cats, one can coconut cream for the dairy free coconut cream pie I am going to make for Emily, one vanilla pumpkin candle...not too bad.  

Yesterday, I wasted four dollars.  I made a double batch of pie dough, for four crusts, all at once in the food processor.  Well.  The bottom dough totally overmixed and turned gummy, the top butter didn't go to the bottom and get mixed, so I got my scraper in there and tried to fix things up...turned into one big gooy mess.  I wrapped it into four disks, put it in the refrigerator, then decided to just admit it, I wasted four bucks...on that entire pound of butter.  

See, I saved money by making my own chicken stock with the chicken carcasses, so you win some, you lose some.

Pot pie...chicken pot pie...doesn't it sound yummy?  I'm going to remake the pie crust.  Tomorrow won't be a good day to make it though, as I'm going out to lunch for my sister's birthday:). 

In a few hours, I'm going to meet Emily at a place to get a new stove, for her, not for me.  I found it on Marketplace for her, so I sure hope it works well.  Most of the time, it is well worth it to get things second hand.  (I asked the guy, he said it works, I believe him.). 

Going out and about with Mariel this morning got me thinking.  When she was seventeen years old:

She was the fourth child...

Emily, the oldest, was out of the house...she went out west for six months, lived at a friend's and at my parents while she was in nursing school, went to Norway for a year, ect...Abigail went to college for four years and was super busy with that...Benjamin went to college before he went into the Army, and honestly, at that time was more of a hindrance than a help around here.  Then there was Mariel.  Then Joseph, who...well, he wasn't much help, although he was a good kid and no trouble.  Then Aaron, who was a super good student, then Molly, Sam, Margaret, Kathryn, Evelyn, Suzanne, Sonja, Jonathan, Charlotte Claire...and I was due for Camille....so it was around the time I started this blog...Mariel was 17, and had 12 younger siblings.  

I apologized to her today, for all that she went through.  She went to public school, and was in chorus and ran cross country, and was in band and went to youth activities, so she had her own life.  But when she was home, it was busy here, and she was organized and helpful.  She loved to cut coupons and shop with me, and she liked to cook and bake.  I did work hard not to rely too much on any of the kids, to spread around the chores, but she did A LOT.  She was always so responsible, and thorough, and tidy.    

Anyway.  Here's a totally different subject...Orange Guy is a huge brat, he was trying to get Sunny to play:

And...these are not my cookies, but I would like for them to be...aren't they lovely?  They do embody autumn, and I bet they taste good too.  You all have a really good afternoon...

what can I say?!

 When life is the same old same old, yet wonderful each and every day...what is there to write about?  It smells lovely in here, if you like it when your house smells like soup.  Yesterday I roasted two big fat chickens, which turned out juicy and delicious, so now chicken broth is being made in the crockpot.  

Let's see, I went to Target today, big surprise.  The girls like one bag of pumpkin spice coffee each season, so I picked that up.  I also got some frozen veggies and a package of chicken, to make some pot pies with, hopefully.  A new rug for over near the door, half price, it looks autumn-y.  There was construction so we had to take the scenic route detour, with Miss Char driving, so it was fun.  Kathryn met us there, so I grabbed little Jamison for my cart:). He is too funny.  Last time we were in there, he tried to stand up in the front seat of the cart, so I sang him the Five Little Monkeys, but changed the words to One Little Jamie, who stood up in the cart, fell and bumped his head, grandma called the dr. and the dr. said....no more Jamies standing in the cart!

Of course I had some treats in my purse for him, and I talked to him about everything and everyone we saw in the store.  I let him touch things, and let him open the freezer doors for me.  Char and Cam had baby Ellis, and Kathryn shopped with Achilles and Rhys.  

Home...ahh, home.  I vacuumed, put down the new rug, washed the comforter from the guest room and put in a new blue floral quilt I've had for a while, then puttered around, cleaned up some things, had a late lunch, which is probably my dinner:  leftover grilled chicken wraps, with salsa Evelyn made with tomatoes from the garden, on Saturday.  (onions, cilantro, garlic, salt, into the food processor, yum!). 

Paul made it Hungary, finally, but his luggage did not.  It's either in Heathrow or New Jersey, or at the airport in Budapest, no one knows for sure.  

Saturday morning, after driving him to the airport, Evelyn and I and this little guy were going garage sale-ing...but the weather was rainy and chilly.  We went to one sale, then to Marshalls/Homegoods.  She found some sneakers, I got some adorable autumn kitchen towels, shampoo, conditioner, and not much else.  But Newton was a good boy.

Emily came over last evening, and these two little boys love their Aunt Emily, Achilles and Jamie.

Random:  this came up in my memories, 13 years ago...the five-girls-in-a-row-in-five-years, Margaret Cheryl, Kathryn Grace, Evelyn Joy, Suzanne Eleanor, and Sonja Kathleen...  They are all married now, Margaret has three kids, Kathryn four, and Sonja one little Kaia.  

Ah well.  The dryer buzzed, and I have other things to do, like take care of the chicken broth...it's been bubbling away in the crockpot for 24 hours.  

Embracing the fall season is hard when you absolutely love your seasonal deck flowers.  Flourishing flowers, new blooms, all doomed.  You know all summer, as you lovingly water them, and prune them and place them just so, making sure they get enough sun, or not too much...that they are going to die, and you will start all over the next year.  You get a little attached.  The tomatoes in the garden that are big and green and so promising...do I pick them and put them in the windowsill?  Summer just isn't long enough.  I got up to go to the pool this morning and it was 50-something out there, my toes chilled in my Birkenstocks.  (ha, going into the pool with cold feet is good though, makes it feel warm!)

The trees are mostly green, but lots of them are starting to orange up.  It's beautiful, of course it is, but dang, summer is too short.

You all have a good day...I'm organizing a trip to go pick up a stove on marketplace for one of the girls...there's always something fun to do!

sometimes...life is just wonderful!

 ... It's a beautiful day, and I'm going out into it!  I've been to the pool, then to town with Paul to have our signature notarized on some documents, then came home and mixed up a triple batch of cookie dough.  (I got the dough all finished and in the fridge to chill, when I started putting things away and realized I hadn't added any vanilla!  oops.  Yeah, I got the dough back out, put the just-washed beaters back into the mixer, and mixed in three heaping teaspoons...the dough wasn't cold yet, thankfully.)

I ordered cookie scoops from Amazon, and they're coming today!  I am so unreasonably excited about this.  Since they're not here yet, I'm going with Char and Cam to meet Sonja and Oscar to take their new baby out for a walk at a park on a lake.  I was just going to stay home, but...?  I can bake later.  (Paul is leaving for Budapest tomorrow, and wants to bring some chocolate chip cookies with him to share with co-workers.)

Anyway.  The birthday party yesterday was wonderful.  I had gone to Aldi earlier to get hot sausage, and fruit:  watermelon, strawberries, raspberries, and green grapes are so delicious all together, watermelon cubed and strawberries sliced!.  I got cheese puffs for the grandkids, and cookies.  I made little prize bags for them with different kinds of cookies, Reeses' pumpkins, and little KitKat bars.

Let's see, Cam in the back,Oscar, Ruth in the pink, Grant in the front, Tenny with his new tool box, Grant, Achilles, Sam, Adrian in the front chair...

Happy birthday, dear Tennyson!

Blythe turned two years old!

Wulf and cousin Achilles

Sonja and baby Kaia, Jamie in the chair, Kathryn and Rhys in the kitchen...

Anya, Char with baby Ellis, Oscar, Camille

Declan, Blythe with her new dolls...

Emily still in her scrubs...(can we agree I am a terrible photographer?)

Sunny with her donut...she hates it, and we laughed ourselves silly.  But, she needs to stop chewing at the sore on her leg, it's for her own good.

Margaret made an amazing cake for Tennyson, a dirt bike trail with toy dirt bikes on it.  I had a pumpkin pie from Costco, so there was plenty of dessert.  Margaret and Adrian went out in the sprinkle rainy weather and grilled coneys, hot dogs, and hot sausage, and husked the sweet corn.  I manned the air fryer, making fries, corn dogs, and mini corn dogs.  

All 17 of the grandkids were here:  Anya, Elise, Declan.  Lydia, Ophelia, Denzel.  Achilles, Rhys, Jamison, Ellis.  Wulf, Tennyson, Blythe.  Grant, Ruth, Maeve.  Kaia.  (Did you know she's the tie-breaker?  8 grandsons, 8 granddaughters, then...9 granddaughters!  The girls are winning, and Grace and Sam's baby girl is due in December, so the girls are going to be in the lead, 10-8!)

It's one of those days that make you fall in love with autumn.  The sun is shining, the wind blowing, partly cloudy.  The trees are just starting to turn, just a few red or yellow leaves nestled among the green.  

The Owasco outlet, Owasco Lake...

It was windy!  Char, Oscar, Sonja (and Kaia!), Camille

It's evening now, all quiet in here.  The park was lovely, then a quick trip to Wegmans.  Home...ahh, home, time to bake those cookies with the new cookie scoops!

After filling my six cookie sheets, I scooped the rest onto parchment, to make it quicker to fill the pans.  Two pans in the oven, timer 6 minutes.  Then switch the bottom pan and top pan, six more minutes.  Remove from oven, put two more in, timer back on...this went on and on for hours, ha.  I didn't count the cookies, but around 120.  

And, no pictures of the finished cookies.  Paul has some packed up for his trip, and we have lots here too.

Tomorrow, it's to the airport, then to some garage sales with Evelyn, then to make chicken fajitas for whomever ends up coming here after the football game in Syracuse.  Kathryn will be coming with the kids, and probably Sonja and Oscar.  I'm thinking of stopping at my favorite bakery....what?!  It's near the airport!  It smells heavenly in there!    Oh I dream of having a bakery.  I'd like to bake and sell it, make some extra money.  But I'd like a countertop four rack 1/2 sheet convection oven, or as long as we're dreaming, a full sized whole sheet one, and an extra huge refrigerator with a freezer too.  :). As long as we're dreaming.    

Anyway.  It's been a busy enough day, I've enjoyed the heck out of it, and I'm tired.  Good and properly tired.  You all have a nice night!

might as well!

It's fall, for all intents and purposes, such as getting out the autumn decor.  I will try to restrain myself and not put out EVERYTHING, as someone once mentioned that "it looked like fall threw up" in my house.  It was very true, I had orange everything everywhere.  Camille helped me carry some things from storage, and I put in a huge load of blankets in the washer, I'll throw the pillows in the dryer with a dryer sheet.  I've been packing away the summery stuff, and the big bin of fall stuff is sitting here, with the lid off so I can smell the wonderful candles.

I ordered some Mrs. Meyer's Mums spray.  If you have never smelled it, you are missing out.  It's wonderful.  It makes cleaning much more rewarding.  It's hard to find in stock in the store, so I just ordered some, you have to spend $29 for free shipping, but um, yeah, I didn't find it too hard to do that.  I'm the housewife-y-est housewife, because I'm super excited that I'm getting a box of cleaning supplies in the mail!  (to get the free shipping I had to add one more thing, so I decided on some Rainwater scented cleaner...how can it not be nice?). 

This is from yesterday...Kathryn with Rhys and Jamie in the cart, and Achilles...

....and Miss Camille with baby Ellis...

Shh, I stole this from instagram, Suzanne and her husband Zech, just because...they are so cute.

Random:  Orange Guy on the dog bed...Sunny is such a good girl.

Today in Costco, baby Kaia and baby Ellis...he does look like a big monster baby, Kathryn!  but still so cute.  

These two make shopping a delight.  They were full of the devil today, as my mother would have said.  Jamie put a box of protein bars in the cart, and kept throwing Rhy's Moana doll on the floor and laughing. They were waving and saying hi to everyone.  

Orange Guy...he knows how to relax.

No one wants a boring recap of vacuuming and laundry and going here and there.  I did sit on the deck and talk to my sister on the phone for a while, which is my favorite.  We simply don't run out of things to talk about.  

Tomorrow is party time here, Tennyson Paul is turning five years old.  He started homeschooling kindergarten, and on his first day paper, one of the blanks to fill in was "Today is....", and you're supposed to say, "Monday, September 1st.", or whatever the date is...but Tennyson replied, "...the worst day of my life."  Because, school.  Isn't that too funny?

I have to wrap his presents, and clean up the house.  We're roasting hot dogs, and I'm getting some sweet corn.  Margaret is making him a Monster Truck cake, and I have some croissants from Costco, his favorite.  It'll be noisy and crazy but it's SO MUCH FUN!!!  

Tomorrow, I plan to call the ortho office and see if they've heard anything about my surgery.  It's scheduled for September 30, but has United Healthcare approved it yet?  They should get their rear in gear and let me get this thing fixed!  I tell you, walking through Costco...ugh.  It's good to get out and about, and to get those steps in, but ouch.  I got home and sat around a bit, talked to my sister...then started doing things again, did too much, then couldn't bend the knee to sit down, it hurt so badly.  It's rested up again, and I'll be getting up and wobbling around again soon....it's not the end of the world, and if I wasn't able to get it fixed, I'd get by, but I know it's not going to get better, and yikes if it gets worse!  

Please, if you are a praying person, remember my sister Cheryl in your prayers.  Without getting into any details, because it is not my story to tell, she has many sufferings, as a person with stage 4 cancer is bound to have.  She is still so funny and thankful and non-complain-y...it is amazing, and very encouraging, and God is good!  She is the very first to say that, too, with all of her heart.  She is my most special friend.  :)

And, in spite of feeling super lazy and content here in my chair, I'm going to get moving again!  You all have a very nice evening!   (And thank you for comments on the blog, it makes my day...I don't always answer all of them, but you know me, procrastinator queen, I do mean to!!)

 

it's so good to be back home again!!!

 I love camping, and this last trip of the season was tinged with sadness, as you know that months of cold and snow stand between it and the next one.  When I was little, I thought half the year was summer and half was winter.  Then I grew up and realized that here in the northeast, most of the year is winter, with a little special treat of summertime.

When I saw this leaf on the beach after the rain...yup.

The sunsets from our campsite though, can't complain.

It was cold on Thursday...brrr!  I had made that beef stew, and warmed it up, we ate it piping hot in the camper with the rain drumming, wind rattling.  Perfect.  Saturday was windy and cool, I tried to go swimming, but the clouds insisted on filling the space in front of the sun, and nope.  Then Sunday, calm at last, clear sky, and ahh, the beach.  We were there for six hours, went swimming three times.

Happiness.

Sunny loves the water

Paul grilled steaks and veggies over those coals...

happy!

Home!  We had a fire on the deck, hot dogs, s'mores...corn on the cob (cooked in the house). Sonja and Oscar came over with baby Kaia...blissful.  

Ms. Sonja K. with baby...Kaia Jean:). 8 lbs, 1 oz.  21 inches long.

Her daddy is pretty pleased!

I got to hold her when she was less than two hours old.

Sonja looking beautiful right after birth...

This sweater and hat were made by Paul's mom for Emily, over 40 years ago...all of my baby girls wore it home from the hospital.

And...the Starting School pictures abound, so I thought I'd post:  Charlotte Claire and Camille Anaya on their second day of college.  :)

Char helped me clear out the camper, I didn't want to leave anything in there over the winter.  I washed some towels and put things away.  There are 115 days until Christmas, and autumn is lovely.  But...it's such a long time until next summer.  I already have two long weekends booked for next year, I can't book anything else until nine months ahead.  

This is from today...I am a very thankful grandma!

Ah well.  It's nice to be home.   You have a good night!