Little Bags of Memories

I have to be honest with you all, I have had quite a hard time getting in to the spirit of things this Christmas.  I have my suspicions as to where my lack of enthusiasm is originating.  It could be that being an "adult" at Christmas is never quite as fun as it was as a child.  Maybe it is because I don't have the glow of a Christmas tree in the late evening and early quiet (we decorated by I didn't want to fool with a tree).  Maybe it is because there are those I hold in my heart that will never be here for Christmas and that makes me sad.  Or maybe, just maybe, my dear husband, who can be quite a "bah-humbug", is rubbing off on me (I do love that grumpy old man)!

No matter the cause, Christmas is fast approaching and I have found myself resiting the cheer of the holiday season.  

That is until last week.  

A few weeks ago we got an email from our neighboorhood "association" saying they would like for everyone to put out luminaries.  Oh "bah-humbug" I said, I don't want to fool with that!  Then the email said they would even give all the neighbors bags and candles, free!  Argh, I said, I still don't want to fool with it.  THEN...we were walking the dogs and they had a table set up by a corner, "Have you gotten your luminary kit yet?"  So there we were, FORCED in to putting out candles in bags...can you believe it?  

Waylon can't believe it!

So after much complaining on my part, I finally resolved that on Sunday evening, I was going to have to put out bags and light candles.  I mean, isn't that just the worst?  So I grudgingly wheeled them out to the street and along with my other neighbors put out my luminaries.

Then something magical happened...like the Grinch when his heart grew...as the lights glowed and the neighbors shared Holiday greetings and excitement I began to warm to the idea, I began to regain my Christmas cheer!  It wasn't necessarily the glow of the candles or the twinkling lights from the neighbors' trees and windows, it was the memory.   The memory of seeing my dad put out luminaries, the memory of driving through neighborhoods with my family and seeing Christmas lights.  

The memory of riding home from the family gathering on Christmas Eve, in the back seat of the car, head pressed to the cold window, watching the stars whiz by, wondering which one was Santa and his reindeer.  It was the memory of the anticipation and sheer joy that I had as a child when Christmas was approaching. 

Those little bags of lights,  they reminded me that this season is not about stress and plans and travel.  This season is about rejoicing and being grateful.  This season is about joy, love, sharing, cheer, and most of all the celebration of the coming of our Savior.  

Sometimes we forget and get wrapped up (!) in the craziness that surrounds the holidays.  Sometimes all we need is a little bag of memories to remind us what Christmas is all about!

 

Thankful

Today is a day that folks all over the US will be gathering with their loved ones, eating tons of yummy food and perusing the paper for Black Friday ads.  People will be giving thanks, playing football and watching parades.  The holiday season is officially in full swing.  I am sitting here in the early morning, drinking some tea and gearing up for the day.  Cornbread is cooked and roasted root vegetables are simmering in the crockpot.  This morning we will head over to my parents house to share in thanks with my family.  This will be one of the first years we will not be joined by extended family.  An intimate Thanksgiving, if you will.  This year my brother raised and butchered the turkey (aunts and uncles and cousins who aren't joining us are missing out :-)  I am looking forward to the homegrown goodness!  

I am thankful for so many things this year...My wonderful husband who is patient and kind, hard working and funny...My family, an amazing group of people who inspire me everyday...My friends, both old and new...Our new church that we love, a community of awesome people...I am thankful for events that have unfolded in the last year that have brought me closer in my relationship with God...I am thankful for food and shelter and the warmth of a home...I am thankful for insulin and good doctors, things that help me live a healthy life...I am thankful everyday for this wonderful life I have been given.  

I hope you all find many things in which you are thankful for today and throughout this Holiday season.  Oh, and I am thankful I don't have to do any shopping on Black Friday (be careful ya'll!).  Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Halloween!

I have to work tonight, so we wont be home for the Trick or Treaters.  So, I figured I would make some festive Halloween treats for the kids at the center!  I can't eat these because of my food allergies, (unfortunately for me, but fortunate for my waistline) but I just love making fun treats for others to eat!  I hope the kids like them!

I got these ideas straight off of Pinterest!  They were super easy to make and did not require too many ingredients! 

Oreo Spider cookies!  Aren't they cute?  Normally, spiders really creep me out, but these little guys are so cute...I don't think I would mind spiders too much if they all looked like this! 

 You can find the recipe here.

I also made little witches hats.  If you have been on Pinterest, you have seen these for sure!  They were so easy.  You can find the recipe here.

I hope everyone has a safe Halloween!

Mini-Vacations and Fish Tales

This past weekend Hubby and I went to Cape Hatteras for a few days.  We stayed in a quaint little hotel which sat directly on the beach.  It was a much needed mini-vacation for both of us.  This will be the last chance we get to go away for the summer since vacation season (i.e. summer) brings for us loads of work in the garden and the kitchen.  So we like to take advantage of the cooler temps and better fishing and take our vacations in Spring and Fall. 

We spent some time on the beach while Hubby surf fished and I relaxed and read my book.  We also kayaked some on the sound side of the island.  Hubby did some night fishing on the beach and caught a huge Red Drum.  The biggest fish he has ever caught and one of record breaking stature.  Unfortunately for him, he did not take my advice to bring the camera along on his fishing jaunt and he didn't even have his phone.  I mean, these days, who doesn't have their phone?  Plus, being that it was pitch black on the beach and around 11:30pm there were no witnesses (I was snug in bed!).  Anyway, so he now has a tale of fishing legend that might as well be a tall tale since he has no documentation.  And, although I am not a fishing guru or a fellow fisherman, or the guy running the local tackle shop, I believe his story and well, shouldn't that be enough?  

Anyway, here are some pictures of our trip.  It was quite a success as the weather was nice, the food was good, there were fishing adventures to be had and no one got sunburned!  

The view from our room

 Climbing Hatteras Lighthouse

 

View from Hatteras Lighthouse

 Climbing down Hatteras Lighthouse

 My view most of the weekend (Book: In the Company of Cheerful Ladies by Alexander McCall Smith part of the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency Series)

 

 

Every Clink

Remember this post when I said to ask me how I feel about our tomato jungle in a few weeks?  Well, it has been a few weeks and I am up to my eyeballs in tomatoes.  Everyday, beautiful red globes shine from the garden.  Red globes that I swear were green the day before.  I find myself thinking...how did I miss this one yesterday?  Navigating the tomato jungle is now a daily adventure.  The ripe fruit is them piled on my kitchen window sills and in my fruit basket waiting to be turned into fresh tomato sauce, canned for later use or eaten freshly sliced with homemade mozzeralla and home-grown basil.  Ah...summer is grand.

 Tomatoes have not been the only produce gracing my counter-tops.  I have also been canning beans and pickles from the garden.  Our bean plants have slowed down at the moment but they are covered in a new crop of flowers.  Our bees are busy pollinating and we expect another bumper crop of beans in about a week.  Last week you would have found me processing fresh picked blueberries making them into no-sugar added jam and freezing the rest.  Farmer's Market peaches were turned into Jalapeno Peach Chutney today! 

 I think my summers can be defined by my canning calendar.  Ebbs and flows of ripening food determine what days I am free to manage my own time and which days I am chained to the metal beast that is my pressure canner.  Don't get me wrong, canning is wonderful, just often time consuming and a little tedious.  Oh and there is nothing like steaming up your kitchen on a 100 degree day!  

 Thermometer in the shade!

I love to preserve food.  The self-sufficient nature of the whole process, the sense of pride in producing a beautiful jar of food, nothing can take the place of those feelings.  There is something very satisfying when you hear the "clink" of a mason jar sealing as it cools.  A sound that I know generations of homemakers have relished for many summers before now.  Every clink fast-forwards me to this winter when I will open a jar of tomatoes, as red and tasty as the day they were put in that jar.  Every clink is another homemade gift for Christmas and birthdays.  Every clink reminds me of why I am here...making my career as a homemaker, providing for my family and preserving a way of life that will never go out of style.  

 Beans and the some of the tomato sauce I canned yesterday (aren't they pretty!)

I canned this hot sauce hubby made from our hot peppers!

And..one very hot dog chilling in the A/C...not sure why he is lying in this position...I promise his neck is not broken.  Sometimes I think he is just trying to make himself look miserable...as if I would feel sorry for this spoiled pup!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!  We were lucky enough this year to ring in the New Year with my brother and sister at their annual New Year's Eve Party.  Good times were had by all!  My brother and I have always been close and I am so grateful for that....even more grateful that he married an amazing woman who I like to consider the sister I never had!  Anyway, enough of the mushy stuff...the point is we had a great time and I am so glad I got to spend the first hours of the new year with family and great friends.

I have really enjoyed reading the New Year's Resolutions of fellow bloggers and friends.  Unfortunately, I have never been very good at resolutions.  I don't like to make resolutions for things that I really need to get done (i.e. lose the extra weight I gained since my back injury last summer) because the pressure of a resolution often makes me doubt my ability and get frustrated with myself.  I like to look at things I have to get done as a necessity, no choice in the matter, it's easier that way for me.  However, there are new things I would like to learn and some things I would like to do. 

I have not always been very crafty.  Lately, I have been perusing a lot of crafty bloggers' sites and I have craft envy!  I would like to learn a little more about some crafts, maybe pick up a few and try and perfect them.  I am working on cross-stitch now and have been learning some new sewing techniques.  Winter is often a slow time for me, so I figure crafts may keep my mind busy. 

I would also like to spend more time with friends.  I would like to get back into yoga in the evenings to relax and read a little more.

I want to maintain control over my diabetes and continue to stay as healthy as possible.  I want to stop worrying so much about insurance and money.  I want to quite my diabetic mind at least an hour a day (that's the part of my mind that never stops worrying and thinking about my diabetes).

I want this year to be a great year full of great things.  I want new traditions and exciting adventures.

What grand adventures are you pursuing in 2011? 

That sure is crafty!

Since all of my loved ones have received their gifts for this holiday season, I have decided to post a few pictures of some of the things I did.  Me being horrible about taking pictures, I failed to get pictures of all of the baskets I put together.  Oh well, I guess you will have to use your imagination!

Hubby and I were doing mostly homemade gifts this year.  Most of our friends and family received canned jams and pickles, homemade bread, and homegrown crushed hot pepper.  I also tried my hand at some homemade ornaments and other crafty things. 


Here are a few of the wine cozies I made....I got the pattern from here

And some of the coffee cozies I made....I got the pattern from Erin over at House on Hill Road

And I also made some adorable bird ornaments, but forgot to take a picture before I gave them away :-)  You can check out the pattern and tutorial over at The Purl Bee  

All of these homemade gifts inspired me to redo our office to make it more functional for crafting and general use.  Plus, Hubby got awfully tired of seeing my sewing mess strewn around the dining room table!  So I spent the last two days painting our office and the last week or so, gathering various pieces of furniture.  I am so excited about my new craft room/functional office!  It is not complete yet, so I will post pictures when I am done.  In the meantime, I have to say I am very happy with the outcome of our homemade gifts and I look forward to coming up with some new ideas in the near future!  What better way to spend the cold winter days! What kinds of crafty stuff did you do for the holiday's?  

White Christmas

We just returned home from a Christmas weekend with Hubby's family in Western NC.  We love it up there, and had a wonderful time visiting with his brother and his folks. 

It seems though that lately when we visit in the Winter it snows like crazy.  We had a beautiful white Christmas!  The kind of White Christmas I always wished for as a kid...the kind where we went to bed on Christmas Eve to no snow and not a cloud in the sky and woke up Christmas morning to snow falling.  Snow that didn't stop falling ALL DAY LONG!  All in all by Christmas night there was a little over a foot of snow on the ground!

We headed home on Sunday as snow blanketed the entire state!  Up here in our neck of the woods we only got about 5 inches of snow, a lot for this area but nothing compared to what we had left on Sunday morning.  So we are back home, enjoying the snow.  Hubby has the week off and we are looking forward to relaxing at home, cozy as a bee in a hive...

December is here!

Boy, December sure did sneak up!  As I type this it is snowing heavily outside.  Yeah, snowing in December in NC!  Hubby just finished cleaning all of the leaves off the yard today.  What happened to Fall?  It is quite rare for us down here in the South to get snow in December!  It is nice and wintry.

I am snuggled up inside drinking a homemade latte and getting ready to do some crafty things!  Hoping to post pictures later, but some of the things I am working on are gifts!  Hope you are all staying warm today! 

Friends and Heavy Artillery

Current Bloodsugar: 62...so I may have overbolused for dinner...but I guess that means I get to eat a cookie!  

Today's prompt: Today is Family and Friends Friday, but since I forgot to get my act together to do the actual prompt (which consists of having a family member guest post on the blog), I will have to do that post on another day!

So instead, I will share with you some fun pictures from Ammofest today!  A day spent shooting targets with good friends and no crazy bloodsugars was a good enough day for me!

Summer Thunder

As I type this entry, it is raining...no pouring...outside.  An hour ago it was sunny and humid...now flashes of lightening and booms of thunder rattle the windows.  The chickens have run for cover and all is eerily quite and calm while a storm picks up outside.  I love NC summers.  I love that storms can pop out of the sky in a heartbeat and then disappear with a flash.  In fact, I am willing to bet that by the time I finish writing, the storm will be calming, steam rising from the ground, and life will resume as the summer evening moves forward.  I love the smell of summer rains.  The air before, metallic, ozone, distinctive.  And the air after, earthy, clean, fresh.      

Thunderstorms remind me of my childhood.  Of course many things remind me of my childhood, but being that it is currently storming, these are the ones I will share.  I remember dashing into the house to escape the inevitable down pour that follows the first crash of thunder.  Hoping the rain would continue after the danger of a lightening strike had passed in order to safely play in the puddles.  I recall sitting by the windows (but not too closely, minding the wishes of my mother) and counting the minutes between thunder and lightening to determine the distance of the storm.  Most of all I remember the excitement and fear of waiting for that next explosion of thunder, knowing it was coming but never really being prepared for the start it would give me.  

I also remember the comfort of my parents bed in the middle of the night when a summer storm would wake me from my dreams.  The feeling of this love and support from my parents, who undoubtedly preferred for me to sleep in my own bed, is brought back by every thunderstorm I have encountered as an adult.  Of course I am sometimes still startled by thunderstorms, and I sure don't need to sleep in my parents bed now, but the heart pumping crashes of a raging storm often serve as a trigger to this precious memory.

Thunderstorms are often nature's outcast, crashing pool parties, ruining picnics, and weddings.  I have had my fair share of rants at thunderstorms, but have yet to meet one that doesn't conjure memories of days past.  So I will forgive thunderstorms for their bad reputation, just as long as they continue to provide me with memories I cherish.

*As I predicted, I am finishing this post, I hear quiet and distant rumblings as the storm has moved past.   

In the shade of the tomatoes

It has been an unseasonably warm June here in central NC.  There has been no break from the heat as temps have remained in the high 90's....it's not August yet, don't we get a little bit of a break?  Heat and all, I have still had to pay my dues to the garden.  The two weeks of being out of service due to a back injury means two weeks worth of weed pulling and maintenance to catch up on.  Hubby has been helping with the weeding and picking beans but we rely heavily on my ability to work in the garden so he can manage other projects around here.  Not to mention my fingers were aching to get dirty and my body was ready to get moving again!

Now that my back in on the mend, I have my little stool (per my doctor's directions) and I sit in the garden and weed to my heart's content.  It has been no easy task over the last 3 days to weed the entire garden.  Although I am not quite done, I have made a dent in those lil' monsters.  With the high temps, the garden is almost unbearable after about 10am, so I have been getting an early start and working before the sun gets too high in the sky.

We have about 9 tomato plants in our garden and most of them are at least 4 feet tall now.  As I was weeding between the plants, I couldn't help but notice the shade they created, and in turn the cooler air in between the rows.  As I sat in there on my stool, I was brought back to memories of being a young child, visiting my grandparents at the old homeplace. 

My cousin H and I would play for hours in the corn field surrounding the homeplace.  On hot summer days, in the corn rows of granddaddy's garden, H and I would play a game while granddady watered the plants.  Our game was one of make believe....something along the lines of us being corn plants and when we were watered we would turn into lil' girls and run down the rows, but if we passed another open spot we become corn plants again, until we are watered again, and so the game would go on.   Granddaddy was always so sweet to play along, as he pretended he was watering his corn as he doused us with the cool water hose. 

Memories like these come back often while I work in the garden, reminding me of my roots and the things that are important to me.  This day was no different, and in the unbearable heat of the day there I was, dirt under my fingernails, a smile on my face, and a content feeling in my heart as I worked in the shade of the tomatoes.

Dog days

Hurry up and wait

This is that time of year in NC where I get to hurry up and wait.  The weather is finally warming up and assuming we don't get any late March-early April freezes (we probably will), Spring is creeping on us!  Red blossoms on the Red Maples, Forsythia bushes, and daffodils are blooming everywhere and the mud pit we call our backyard is finally turning green again!

I tilled the garden this morning to get ready for our pending planting of the summer garden...which will happen after our expected last frost of April 21st.  The yard has been clean and most traces of Fall and Winter in the form of sticks, leaves, and dead branches have been removed only to be replaced by the quick growing weeds that are already popping up everywhere.  It seems like everyday I see something new blooming, emerging and gathering it's strength for the pending growing season. 

We have hurried through the last few months, planting seeds indoor, preparing the garden soil, cleaning the yard, spending hours of physical and mental time to prepare for the planting season.  Now we get to wait, a few more weeks is all it will take to mostly guarantee frost free growing for our vegetable garden.

Other exciting Spring related news...we picked up our bee hive a few weeks ago and are getting ready to paint and set up the hive.  We pick up our package of bees on April 10th.  I can't wait to get this new adventure started!  More on that later!

Now...where did I leave my patience.....

Dream a little dream

It snowed this morning.  Generally here in the South, snow is a novelty, an "oh boy dust off the boots and the winter coats, its time to make snow cream and snow soup (a specialty of my dad's!)" kind of novelty.  But this morning, as I rolled out of bed and stumbled to the window I sighed as I saw the little fluffy flakes...not again!  This winter has been a strange one for us here in NC.  Colder than normal, snow or rain almost every weekend and mud, mud, mud.  Enough already...I am ready for Spring.

This is that time of year where I get really antsy.  I start planning the garden in my head and perusing seed catalogs...thinking of the landscape and longing for crocs and garden gloves.  This year in particular I can't stop thinking about our expanded garden space, our plans for the chickens, and the new addition of bees!  There is so much swimming around in my head and I can't wait to put it to good use when Spring comes around. 

I know "hate" is a strong word, but I almost hate this time of year...the time of year when you have (and want) to start thinking of Spring but you can't do anything about it.  I am a planner, and when I can't put my plans in action they take over.  I read about gardening and yard work, I plan gardening and yard work, and I even dream about it....yes, this time of year, almost every night, my dreams are filled with some sort of Springtime plans. 

For example, Hubby and I, well let me rephrase that...I want to get some bantam chicks this Spring to add to our flock.  About a month ago, I needed to get chicken food for our full grown layers.  The night before I was thinking of the new chicks and had a dream about buying chicken food for the chicks (that we don't have yet).  Well, being that my thoughts are all consumed with my plans, I actually went to the feed store the next day and bought the layer crumble (for chicks) instead of the layer pellets (for our adults).  Not realizing my mistake until I returned home, our layers had to eat crumble for the next month or two.  No harm done, but really?  Can I not stop thinking about Spring long enough to buy the right chicken feed?

I imagine Spring would come and go as normal and our garden would flourish whether or not I started planning, thinking, and dreaming in January or planning, thinking, and doing in late March.  Sometimes I wish I could quiet my mind and not think about the garden or anything Spring until it is time to actually do it (my hubby is good at this)!  But I also think that the planning and dreaming gets me through the cold dreary days of winter and helps me appreciate even more the signs of early Spring.  

The Great Blackberry Caper of 2010

So hubby and I visited his folks at their house in Western Carolina this weekend.  The snow was outrageous and so beautiful.  Well, beautiful for those of us got to leave it behind on Sunday as another 4-6 inches was dumping on top of the 12 inches already on the ground.  Not so beautiful for his folks who have to live and work in it! 

All that aside, we haven't been to their home in a few months and we were long overdue for the quiet woods and seclusion of their house.  They live on top of a mountain in a completely off-grid solar home.  Their lot is mostly surrounded by State Forest Land and other large wooded lots with houses.  The view from every angle is beautiful and the air is silent.  We weren't expecting so much snow, but aside from getting stuck in the driveway and having to "suit" up every time we went outside, it was a great trip. 

While visiting with his folks, we had planned on finding some blackberry bushes to bring home.  Hubby's dad had a stand of wild blackberry bushes just off the top of their driveway, so in the deep snow and cold air, we set out to accomplish the Great Blackberry Caper of 2010.

The caper begins here at home where hubby and I had decided to cut down some fir trees growing behind our garden.  The purpose was two-fold, the trees were partially blocking where we are going to build hubby's shed and they were growing in a precious sunny spot in our yard.  We (and when I say we, I mean my hubby as he cut down and drug away all the trees) left a row of 3 small trees to continue to provide a visual barrier between our yard and that of our neighbor's.  These trees will come down in the fall and be replaced with some that are slightly more aesthetically pleasing and useful.  But in the meantime, we decided to plant a blackberry patch in the space between the garden and the remaining trees.  Hubby loves some blackberries and I would have to say that this girl is pretty fond of them too.  We also figure this is one way we can add to our plants from which we produce food. 

Instead of purchasing bushes from a nursery we decided to swipe some from the folks-in-law.  Their blackberry bushes handle cold weather and extreme winds, and are currently growing in little to no soil on a rock face.  This created a formula for an interesting experiment.  How will these bushes do when planted using compost and pruned yearly?  Will they flourish and be manageable?  Because our fir trees have left behind trunks and roots, we figure these blackberry bushes may be able to compete a little better than the more delicate ones we would purchase.

Of course, we were not expecting 8 inches of snow on top of 4 inches from the previous weekend, equaling more than a foot in places where the snow had not melted.  Lucky us, the blackberries were growing in shallow soil so we decided that digging them out of the snow was not going to be all that hard.  We suited up and headed out to the rock face in the 15 degree weather.  Believe it or not it did not feel nearly as cold as it does here when the temperature is so low. 
briar-patch.  We trimmed off the old canes.  Many of the plants have new canes, which will produce fruit this year.  We cut these back a little but left some with the hopes of getting a little bit of fruit this year.  Here is a picture of Hubby digging up some of the bushes.

 

We placed the roots in landscaping pots and covered the pots in snow to insulate from the cold night coming up.  

We loaded the bushes in the truck and brought them home the next day.  Today, at home, I placed the plants in the leaf litter to cover their roots.  I hope to plant them in the ground tomorrow.  We are hoping that these bushes will take off this summer and give us lots and lots of juicy blackberries next year.  Stay tuned for more on the Great Blackberry Caper of 2010...

Here are some other pictures from the snowy weekend!