what was I thinking?!

 Yesterday afternoon, Molly and her husband Josh came over with little Lydia and Ophelia, to play and visit and have dinner.  Paul shows his love and care by bringing out toys...dollhouses and bins of accessories and ride-ons.  The girls mostly liked jumping on the couch...we have one old leather couch that jumping is allowed on.  They liked playing "Life" with Molly and Charlotte Claire, although Ophelia, who is two years old, just liked stealing their cars.  I got out coloring stuff, she scribbled a few scribbles and was done.  

Dinner was a nice rich chicken stew, made with 4 and a half pounds of chicken breast (cubed and trimmed, rolled in flour, salt and pepper, browned in olive oil, simmered in two quarts of chicken broth...then some freshly chopped carrots and potatoes, and a bag of mixed veggies, for some green, thickened up with a bit of flour, salt and pepper, and lots of rosemary). 

I spend my afternoon in the kitchen. I wanted to make apple, as we had stopped at the little farm stand/store down by the river, for a huge bag of baking apples.  Mary, the owner, gives a good mixture of varieties, for only $12. 

Apple pies...there is something almost heavenly about a homemade one.  I made the dough first, whirred the flour and salt in the food processor, then added the sliced butter (butter is very dear right now, price keeps going up!  And for two double crust pies, that's a whole pound!).  I don't add water to the mixture until I pour it into a bowl, and then use ice water...a tiny bit at a time, tossing with a fork, not too much or the dough won't be flaky.  I cheated a little, because I really wanted to make a sugar free pumpkin pie tools I made five disks from the dough.

This one looks rather ugly...

...this one better, but not beautiful...but what it lacked in beauty, it made up for in taste...oh my!

The pumpkin:  A-OKAY! I made it like a regular pumpkin pie, but substituted a combination of monk-fruit white sugar, and some Swerve brown sugar...it doesn't taste all fake.  The consistency is really nice.

Kathryn and I went to Ollie's earlier in the day, with Achilles and Rhys. I had a 15% off coupon...

Rhys looking at Santa....she's such a darling, I love that I get to push her in the cart...

Kathryn with Achilles...

I got a few things for stockings, didn't buy any toys, or Christmas decorations except for two strings of solar lights for outside.  

Kathryn brought the kids in for a few hours to play, and ended up leaving before Molly and fam got here.  What I cannot believe is that I didn't take any pics of Lyd and Ophelia!  oops.  Suri wasn't feeling well when they were here, but has bounced back.   It was rather busy in here...but dang.

Here are some random pictures for you:

Aaron with Camille, from long ago...

Camille, in the snow, yes, those are bare feet!

Just joy though!  We still had our 15 passenger van then...

Camille with Duke, he was a good dog...Char, Jon, Suri...

Charlotte Claire, Jon, Cam...too much fun, time just slips right through your fingers...by the time I was homeschooling these three youngest, I had caught on to time's tricks.   But I still couldn't slow it down.  I could, however, enjoy their little-ness, extra more than I had with the older ones.

My mother-in-law is 93 years old, and lives on her own. She still cross-stitches, and the other day, a big box came in the mail...one cross stitch for Ben and Ashley's little Declan, and one for me:

I don't actually watch Christmas movies, although the kids have watched, "The Knight Before Christmas" like three times through the years...it's silly and funny and they get a kick out of it.  I love the cross-stitch though, the string bulbs around the edges!

Cozy...the very definition of cozy.

Margaret took this pic yesterday...her power went out, and she HAD to work, so she packed up her boys and brought them over to Evelyn's apartment...she works from home too...the boys got to go out and enjoy the snow though! 

Wulf and Tennyson....

Grant and Ruth live up there too, near the lake.

And...Miss Suri.  She's doing fine today, not sure what her issue was yesterday...sometimes she's just off, and we know she's a princess, her name MEANS princess...if only we could clone her...I'd take another one, please.

Kathryn had an appointment today, so she brought Achilles and Rhys here.  She's back now, and baking with Camille. I have a roast to put into the instant pot with carrots and potatoes.  It's the afternoon slump. It's been a busy day...Sonja had to drive to the small city to hand in paperwork from clinical, so I went along and picked up some coffee from the local roaster, oh so good!  We also went to Walmart for cornstarch and lemons (homemade lemon meringue pie!), flour, sugar, canned squirt whipped cream...and home...ahh,  home...Grace will be here any minute now with Grant and Ruth...

Ha, was there actually a time not too long ago when I wondered what I would do when my kids grew up?!