Busy Weekend

Well the weekend is winding down and I actually have time to post.

My nephew got married this weekend and I was quite busy from Friday until early this afternoon.

Meet Derek and Karla. Derek is my sister's youngest child and my godson. It was very strange to see him get married as to me he was still the chubby little fellow that chased frogs with me. Just goes to show a person that people (youngsters especially) grow up really fast!

Here is a picture of my sister's family. Derek and Karla are of course front and center. My neice Ashley and her husband Nolan are on the left side, Jared my sister's oldest boy is the tall fellow in the center and then come my sister and her husband Gerry.

When I heard that Karla made her own wedding cake, I just had to take a photo of it to share with all of you. It was absolutely perfect, and to think that with all the other wedding plans she still had time to make it is mind boggling to me.

Well off to visit all of you.

Everyone have a wonderful evening. God bless.

The Weather Outside Is Frightful

The last two days has seen us going through some very strange weather. One minute it is very cool and breezy, the next hot and humid. Then of course there are the sudden downpours of rain, with lots of thunder and lightening. As long as we don't get the golf ball sized hail that other places have gotten I will be happy.

I spent the last two days cleaning areas of the house that I have been unable or perhaps I should say unwilling to tackle until now. I never thought having a clean coat closet would give me so much pleasure!

I have also been busy doing some baking. Have to take advantage of the cooler weather, and at least I don't have to turn the air conditioning on full blast while baking. In fact the air conditioner has not been on for the last two days. Yippee, lower energy costs!!!

So what have I been baking between bouts of frantic cleaning.....

These are some Oatmeal Muffins. One of the ladies on the Frugal Living Forum posted the recipe and I just had to try them. These are so

good warm with lots of butter. They make a wonderful breakfast.

Next my chocolate cravings got the best of me and I just had to make these unbaked Chocolate Cookies. I may make another batch tomorrow if the weather is cooperative.

Then I discovered a container of sour cream waaaay back in the fridge. It was almost outdated and so I decided to make this Sour Cream Coffee Cake. It is all sliced up and in a container in my freezer for future enjoyment.

My last concoctions in the kitchen were..... blueberry muffins, using up the last of the fresh blueberries we had been given, and brownies another bowing to my inner chocoholic personality. I would upload some pictures of the finished product but blogger is not letting me. Guess my photos are causing "internal errors" right now.

Kris phoned tonight and he is coming home this weekend for his cousins wedding on Saturday. He sounds a bit better right now, so I hope it lasts. He did ask if I had made any Chocolate Chip Cookies lately, so I think I will make a double batch tomorrow.

Well off to visit you all. Everyone have a wonderful evening. God bless.

My First Real Day Of Holidays

I consider this my first real day of holidays. The house was my own, I could wonder around in my nightie all day if I so chose. But of course the day was so beautiful that the outside called to me. So into my clothes, coffee and camera in hand I ventured outside to take some more photos.

Look what I found growing on one of our tomato plants. Soon we will be feasting on fresh tomatoes. Mmmm, nothing better.

Next. I sat on our deck and enjoyed the privacy that the Virginia Creeper imparts. I love being surrounded by all this lush greenery when drinking my coffee in the morning. Makes me think that I am not surrounded by other houses and people. Nice, quiet and peaceful, just what I needed this morning.

Now on to what I have been keeping busy with in order to keep some semblance of sanity during the last month and a half. I am slowly but surely working my way through my yarn stash. I have managed to make 3 more baby afghans and a fourth is on my needles at this moment. I hope to have it finished in the next two weeks. There are 3 babies arriving in the family over the next few months and I like to have enough afghans on hand to make sure everyone receives one.

This summer Harvey's side of the family is having a reunion. It takes place in just two weeks. It was decided to have a silent auction and each family was to bring at least one item for it. Well I finally got to work (after procrastinating for months) and this is what I made for the auction. Not too bad if I say so myself. Hope they like it enough to bid on it.

Well off to visit all of you and continue my quest on getting caught up on everyone's news. Everybody have a wonderful evening. God bless.

Blogging Break Over

Well it has been a long time since I posted, things just seemed to spiral out of control for awhile. Now things are back to normal (or at least as normal as they get around here) and hopefully I can get back on track.

Spring weather was just so horrible this year. It seemed as if I was forever waiting to plant my garden and once we managed to we spent many a night running out and covering every thing up to protect it from frost. Hence my garden and flowers are just starting to grow and look half way decent.

This is a picture of one of the railing boxes on our front steps. The Cascade Petunias are finally filling out and looking very nice.

These are some lovely hot pink geraniums that I put in a basket beside the front door. They just keep right on blooming and the scent of the leaves keeps the mosquitoes far away from my front door.

Ahhh, some of the MoonFlowers I started in the house. This planter is on the cement patio, I have another on the deck. They aren't growing as quickly as I would like, but they are finally showing some signs of enjoying the warmer weather.

My Impatience corner. These are growing by leaps and bounds. I have mini roses on the deck floor and they are starting to bloom once again.

Now that I have talked about and shown you some of my babies I will tell you all about my last month of working.

I was really contemplating quitting my job by the middle of the month of May. It seemed that according to the teacher I could do nothing right. It made me wonder how I could go from being a blessing to the class to a total failure. She came right out and said I didn't know how to use my down time....then I looked over at the other aide who was sitting there doing nothing and said to her "I always ask you if there is anything you need done or write up reports for you, do you have any other suggestions as to what I could be doing?" This bothered me a great deal until it came to light that the teacher wanted me to quit so that her daughter would be hired to take my place. It was then I decided that I would go to the Principal if things stayed as tense between us as had been, or if my evaluation was not good. When the time came for my evaluation every thing was just fine, no problems what so ever. HUH? What ever happened to all the knit picking of every little thing I did...guess I will never know.

During this time our youngest son. Kris had another serious battle with depression. I spent many an hour on the phone with him and finally got a chance to go up and see him. He is doing better right now, but since it is situational depression it is bound to catch up with him again. It broke my heart to hear him crying on the phone and wondering if he would be living on the street and eating out of garbage cans in five years. I wanted to wrap my arms around him and tell him over my dead body would that happen. I just hope the situation rights itself very soon. I am going to ask you all to pray for him, he really needs the prayers right now.

Well I am off to pay all of you a visit. It will be great to catch up with everyone. More garden pictures in my next post, and perhaps a picture or two of what I have been doing sewing and knitting wise to keep sane. Everybody have a wonderful evening. God bless.

So Cold Outside

It is early Saturday morning, and I sit here listening to the birds singing, see the sun shining, and think to myself today is the day. Then I look out the window, see the frost on the windshields of the vehicles on the street and know it is not. It almost seems as if the weather just does not want to co operate with us gardeners here in Saskatchewan. We will have beautiful temperatures and sunny skies for a couple of days........then the temperature plummets and we get rain, hail, or snow. My poor plants are stuck in the house for awhile yet.














These pictures are of some Moonflower seeds I planted. Out of the eight seeds I planted I managed to get 4 to grow. In case anyone doesn't know Moonflowers are actually part of the Morning Glory family....except unlike Morning Glories these open at night. The flower is white and can be 6 inches in diameter. The first time I was given a plant by a friend I fell in love with them. I put plants on the deck and in the evening when I am enjoying the quiet, watching the stars or the moon, I can gaze also on the bright white flowers of this plant. They seem to reflect the light of the moon and sort of shimmer. This time I have enough to do a couple of large pots, one for the deck and one for the patio below.


Well off to visit you all now. Hope there is coffee on! Everybody have a wonderful day. God bless.

My Weekend Fun

On Friday night, just after I finished the dishes and headed towards my chair to work on my knitting for the evening....a knock on the door. I opened the door and the two little boys from down the street, were standing there with these carnations in their fists.

They handed them to me and said "These flowers are for you for Mother's Day, cause we know your boys live far away." I almost cried at their thoughfulness.

Then on Mother's Day we followed our tradition of going to Regina to visit the greenhouses. My favorite one was closed for some reason this year, but we managed pretty well at the one that was open.

Here are just a few of the plants that I am going to need to make our yard beautiful for the rest of the spring and summer.

This will give me a good start, but I know that I need many more to make my yard be a place I want to spend my days and evenings enjoying.

The best thing about the whole day was I got to spend time with Harvey and our youngest son Kris....and when I got home our oldest son Kurt was phoning to wish me a Happy Mother's Day. What could be better....oh yeah....no cooking at all. Got to love days like that.

Well off to visit you all. Everyone have a wonderful evening. God bless.

Normality Once Again

The past week went by in a blur. Things are finally getting back to normal around the school once again. While we will always miss Susie, she would want us to carry on, and so we are.

Today was a ghostly gray day to wake up to. This picture was taken early this morning looking down into the valley from our front window.

This picture was taken looking down the road towards the main street leading from the south that runs past our little side street.





Wisps of fog deadened the sound of the vehicles passing by. Once the fog lifted I could once again hear the sounds of passing vehicles and people walking. It always amazes me how fog can deaden sound.





The grass is greening up, and Harvey and I are planning a trip into Regina to visit one of the larger greenhouses this Sunday. I told him it could be my Mother's Day gift......plant shopping.





Speaking of plants. Does anyone know anything at all about orchids? I have managed to keep this one alive for two years.

Lots of interesting things happening to it right now, I just don't know if any of these green off shoots are flower stalks! Help!!!!

Well off to visit everyone, it has been awhile. I hope everyone has a wonderful evening.

God bless.