Hexie Quilt Along

 Another one in the books

 And still more

 Yepee, finally starting on my second column!!

 I'm afraid adding columns is going to be a bit of a pain

Here is the first column completed. There is no turning back now, it's way to long for a table runner. I hope to use this in one of the guest rooms within the next year!! The bed is a queen size so this is no small task.

Off to my mini adventure, first a stop at the post office, bank and fill up the tank. I am taking along my "Grandmothers flower Garden" quilt just in case I get in the mood to sew the first block on the second roll. Oh to have the quilt top done before winter so I can start the hand quilting that I have no idea how to do!!

A great day to all, take the time to do something fun for yourself!!!!

Simple Sunday

 I couldn't stand one more day of doing nothing but sitting on the couch working on hexies. I have had this minky fabric waiting around for some attention way to long. Karsyn is all about her minky's for napping and sleeping. I embroidered a "K" on hers and one for my GF's grand that I will be having a sleepover with tomorrow, the rest went into the gift drawer. I went with a 14x14 size, not too big, not too small.

 Can't forget about the boys. Four more for boys are in the gift drawer as well. They will make nice little add on's for baby gifts. I  pick up minky (cuddle) fabric for $10.99 a yard at one of the HUGE outlet stores not far from here. Regular price in other stores can run as much as $19.99 a yard!!. You can also buy on line, here is the link   http://maryjos2.reachlocal.net/fabrics

 While I was sitting on my rump working on minky's hubby was working like a crazy man trimming bush's and trees. He got a little carried away....When I looked out the front door I noticed one of our smaller Crepe Myrtles was gone. How could he not notice that a 7 foot tree with bark and flowers was NOT a weed? When I brought this to his attention and he realized what he had done he assured me it would grow back and that no one would notice, Ya right. Each of our DD's ask what happened to the other tree when they came for Sunday dinner.

 After Sunday dinner of carry out (hubby is sick of cooking) the grands had a dip in the hot tub, followed by a ride on the tractor with Papaw. Nothing fancy goes on at Sunday dinner, just family time with lots of catching up and laughter.

And KISSES. Lots and lots of KISSES. The little girls are all about kissing each other. They call each other baby.....so sweet. As soon as I heard Karsyn say to Kara "Baby kisses" I knew I would get a great shot!!

I am packed and ready for an overnight with a GF tomorrow!! While we think we will get some sewing in the reality is we might not get a thing done other than a good long visit. My GF's school will be starting back on Wednesday so this is our last chance for some girl time, where the heck did the summer go? I hope to get a few photo's from around town to share. I realized while talking to her tonight I don't think I have ever taken any pictures of all the fun things they have around town. If you are an Andy Griffith fan this will be a real treat, I am headed to Mt Airey, NC, Andy's hometown

Stinkin Foot

Sitting around doing nothing is VERY over rated!!For a change I am driving hubby crazy, Ha,  Bless his heart he has been a pretty good trooper through this thing so far. We have had dinner on the table each night that he has cooked with me sitting in the chair giving directions, the laundry is done, fresh sheets are on the bed, floors vacuumed and mopped. I now realize I would stink at being the boss of anyone. It needs to be my way or the highway. Hubby needed a little break so he is off with his man friends at the shooting range. I better play nice for the next day or he might be ready to put me out of HIS misery!!

I am getting lots done on my Grandmothers Flower Garden quilt while watching season 2 of "Little House on the Prairie" so all is not lost. Also getting caught up on some blog reading.... The good is I am enjoying all the posts I have gotten behind on, the bad is I am making notes on things you other ladies are doing/making that I have on my must do soon list.

One that has me green with envy today is Carla's post at "1/2 Dozen Daily" on her fresh and tidy sewing room. I love how she wraps her fabric to keep it nice a neat as well as allowing her to see what she has got on hand. Wonder how hubby would feel if I add a little more work on him to keep me occupied, I would love to wrap my fabric as well.

Rhonda over at "If you do stuff stuff gets done" Is remaking her craft room and baking like a crazy lady. Not sure hubby is up to baking fresh bread but I might just run it by him HA Both blogs are on my sidebar

Here is the Granola recipe I promised to pass on, super easy and really good. Instead of adding chocolate chips you could add any sort of dried fruit. The recipe came from the book "Make the Bread, Buy the Butter" by Jennifer Reese. This is a really good cookbook for those of you who are like me land reads a cookbook from cover to cover!!

3 Cups rolled oats
1 cup roughly cut almonds
1/2 cup pecans
1/4 cup wheat germ
1/3 cup maple syrup
3/4 cups coconut
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup melted butter
3/4 tsp salt

Mix all together, spread on a cookie sheet and bake in a 250 degree oven for 1 hour and 15 minutes. You don't need to stir during baking.

I have changed the recipe a bit. I always make a double batch and bake on a jelly roll pan. I use chopped walnuts for all the nuts since we like that the best. I substitute honey for syrup, I can get honey locally. I don't add wheat germ because I don't have any. Of course a few chocolate chips go in our mix. Enjoy!!

These feet were made for walking

 Nice relaxing pedi after supper yesterday. 

This morning was a different story. How do you like my new $562.00 boot? My new fashion accessory is a light metallic blue, cost $39.99.

The old school thinking of use it our lose it, work through the pain doesn't apply in some cases. Feet are one example that I have learned the hard way.

I have had Planters Fasciites in my left foot for many month's, at least since last December. I have faithfully done the exercises as the Dr prescribed but things didn't seem to improve. The past few month's I have hobbled around to the point that my right foot, hips and back are beginning to protest.

By not going back to the Dr for a follow up the Fasciities  it has now turned into a heel bone spur. If you want to see a yucky photo just google it with photo's. My spur is WAY big, bad, and ugly. I have been slicing up the inside of my heel with each step I have been taking, which has lead to lots of soft tissue damage.

After 3 shots into my foot and bone this morning they wrapped my foot in some sort on stabilizer that can't be removed until Sunday, also can't get it wet. Taking a shower for the next few days should be interesting. I am to sit and do nothing other than potty runs until Sunday, no going up and down steps and such. Not good since out bedroom and full bath's are all upstairs. I have grown accustom to going up and down steps with the grands as they are learning to climb staires on all fours, coming down on your bottom or belly so I WILL be taking a shower each day!!!!

No driving for 3 weeks, looks like my gas budget will be lasting a lot longer than anticipated, that's a good thing. I did however let the new Dr know I have a special outing planned next week that I am not going to miss. After discussing the logistics I will carry on with that plan. 

May be back later tonight to post the recipe for Granola, if not for sure in the AM. Hubby will be cooking baked pork chops for dinner tonight. I feel another "he said she said" post will be coming up! Ha

Kitchen Duty

 I started with 3 roasted chickens at $4.99 @, works out to about $17.00 total with tax.

 After de-boning we ended up with 10 meals. The dark meat I will give to a friend who loves dark meat, the rest is in the freezer. $1.07 for each meal is a good deal to me!!

 The bones and other stuff all went into a pot with some onions, carrots (our garden) and celery. I let it simmer for a few hours then strained it and put it in the refrigerator to cool down.

 Once the stock is cool you can skim off the fat super easy, then it was onto loaf pans to freeze. I put 4 cups of broth in the large pans, 2 cups of broth for the small pans. This seems to be the amount of broth I use for most recipe's.

 After the broth bricks are frozen they are vacuumed sealed, back to the freezer they go. We ended up with 3 large bricks as well as 3 small bricks. Got a lot of mileage out of the 3 roasted chickens.

 On to granola after supper.  The book I got the recipe from figured the cost at $1.10 a cup. I am sure mine comes out cheaper since I buy in bulk for most of the ingredients. The coconut and nuts I got on a super deal at the after Christmas sales.

 An hour and 20 minuets later a double batch of granola with chocolate chips.

 Four loaves of zucchini bread was added to the freezer the extra 2 loaves will be split between us and our DD's.

 Mason man is hanging out with me today so Mommy can have some pool time with the other two.

Look who's learned to crawl!! The feet of his sleeper looks dirty as all get out. I PROMISE that is not the case!!!! I have no idea why the lighting showed up this way.

I won't say today is a laid back day but at least I am not on my feet all day at the stove or oven. Ha!! I figure the majority of my time will be spent laying around on the Grands playroom floor plucking this little guy out of trouble. For a baby who just learn to crawl he is a speed demon. We figure he has to keep it in high gear to  stay out of sister Karsyns way.

Supper tonight is super simple, bow tie pasta with chicken and broccoli along with some frozen rolls. I am headed to get my pedi after that, leaving hubby and DD #2 with the dishes, go me!! I am hoping the ladies at the shop don't want to chit chat. I would love to just set back and rest my eyes for an hour or so.

My side kick has fallen asleep in his swing so it's off to a quick shower for me and maybe a few minuets in the sewing room to clean up a little. Lord What a mess

Canning

 Steaming tomato's for juice

 Hardly any waste after the juice was worked up, just peels and seeds

 Tomato juice and sweet cherries cooling. The tomato juice is still sick looking but tastes great.

Canning supplies washed and left to air dry, this is messy business. Notice the pile of yet more tomato's in the window. The afternoon stroll in the garden while looking like crap is at least putting out tomato's. A few more days of garden duty and I will be back at the canner.

It took until close to midnight yesterday to get the tomato juice and cherries worked up but the task is done!! The dishes are all put back in there place awaiting another round of canning in a few days. I will try and remember to take a photo of my summer storage solution for canning supplies during the season. Once canning season is over everything is moved back to seasonal storage. While we have a nice big kitchen I don't have the room for things we don't use that often.

Today's task is working up 3 roasted chickens I picked up at the grocery store Sunday. One of our stores runs a special each Sunday of roasted chicken for $4.99 @. We were running really low on precooked chicken for quick meals as well as chicken stock/broth.

The other to do for today is shredding zucchini for bread over the winter and making a few loves to put back in the freezer, almost done with that. I want the oven turned off by 2:00 before it heats the house up to much. I also need to restock our granola, after supper tonight when the sun goes down I will make up a double batch

 Both refrigerators need some TLC. I need to organize some leftovers, decide what to do with the garden veggies that are once again piling up and cut up some melons to free up space. We tend to eat more fruit if it is already worked up in containers. DD#2 unlike her parents likes to have health snacks on hand. Hubby and I are happy as two pigs in mud to grab a piece of cake or sweet bread to snack on.

I had a good visit with our Dr yesterday. Love that the practice we have been with for 20 years takes time to really talk about things. My blood work for seizure thresh hold  is low again, the generic drug is not having the same results as the good stuff so an increase is in order. I am cool with that, I know that I am doing my part as far as natural ways to keep myself in check and my liver studies are OK so increasing the dosage is not a big deal. It takes a few weeks for my body to adjust but a little extra sleep is not such a bad deal!! HA

I have been hobbling around since January with a left foot injury. The physical therapy I have been doing at home is not making much of a difference. Off to a specialist on Thursday to see what magic they can do. Once again having a good working relationship with our family Dr. will make this visit go a little better. She has already forward the specialist that throwing me a prescription for pills isn't my cup of tea. A pedi is a must have tomorrow!!! No way am I going to meet a new Dr. with yucky feet!! Ha

Kathy ask for the recipe for chocolate sheet cake we had at Sunday dinner, hope this link works. I am too lazy to type it out. The cake is a bit of a pain to make but worth the trouble. My recipe calls for adding a TBLS of cinnamon to the cake batter

http://southernfood.about.com/od/chocolatecakes/r/bl10731d.htm

Quilting and Canning

 The hexie quilt is coming along.

 Each day last week I spent a little time in the evenings sewing.

 Progress is being made one hexie at a time.

 It takes 56 hexies for each quilt block. 5 and 3/4 are finished. That's 336 hexies, only 1,800 more to go

I gathered the tomato's from around the kitchen this afternoon to start canning. A very late start I am sorry to say.

I am pretty happy with the progress of the "Grandmothers Flower Garden" quilt so far. I knew going into this deal it was going to be a possible year long endeavor, I was right!! Ha I almost have enough finished for the first column, go me!!

I got a VERY late start on canning today too many errands this morning and a good long much needed phone call with a dear old friend. Jackie please have Dave retire and move next door to us!!!!!

So being that it was late when I started and I am not really in the mood to can tomato's I decided to make tomato juice instead using the juice steamer. I knew I wasn't comfortable with the instructions suggested so I was going to modify them with a safer process. I did not however expect the juice to come out so thin and pale :( When I say pale I do mean pale as in the color of urine. Not too appetizing to look at but it did taste like tomato juice.

I have to admit I really like store bought canned tomato juice to drink, (yum) and use it for lots of different soups and stews. The thickness of the store bought and richness of its taste is "pure dee good" ( think Larry the cable guy accent when saying that). My Grandmother and Aunt always made tomato juice, it was all we knew and it was good. That is until I locked my lips around the store bought stuff. 

I am now moving on to plan "B"

Plan "B"     I have begun collecting the juice into stock pots instead of jars. I have one pot full the second is well on its way to being full. The juice is having more and more color to it as the tomato's break down. Once I have collected all of the juice into pots I will rewarm it then can using the blue ball canning book method. I am not sure how I will fix our dinner tonight, there is not a single burner on the stove open. I am fine with a bowl of cold cereal but hubby and DD#2 will be wanting a little more of a stick to your ribs kinda dinner. I am thinking a Father DD dinner date will be the key to finishing up the juicing for today.

I so wanted to knock out canning the cherries tonight so I can be done with one more to do, however I have no idea how many more hours the juice will be going or how many jars I will need to process :(  So much for a quick fix with tomato's

Lots to do

 Karsyn is a corn eating fool, the girl can't get enough corn on the cob!

 Sunday dinner desert was chocolate sheet cake, zucchini bread and home made ice cream. Yum

 One pile of the many tomato's that need to be canned.

Part of yesterday's haul from the garden. I sent hubby off with an additional bag full of veggies to share at work.

The list of things that are on the MUST do list is growing by leaps and bounds. I have to get the tomatoes canned today before they start going bad. I also have 10 pounds of sweet cherries that need attention, lots of dehydrating waiting to be worked up, and the onions are finally dry enough to store. Our garden is in sorry shape this year however we are beginning to get more than we can use on a daily bases. The hot work of canning will be underway this week. Added to that our DD#2 moved home over the weekend so I need to help her settle in until she can find an apartment of her own. Lots of Mommy TLC on that front along with the entire family who as expected has rallied to her side.

Off to my yearly physical this morning, followed up with breakfast out with some friends. Supper tonight is quick and easy. I pulled the stuffing for peppers from the freezer along with that we have leftover potato salad, pasta salad, and corn on the cob. I so love leftovers on days like today!!

Will be back later today/tonight with an update on my hexie quilt along. Much better progress this past week than the week before. Slow and steady is the name of the game on this project

Prayers for the Families

 The little girls play so nicely most of the time.

 However they do have their moments when sharing is just not in the cards. Yesterday Kara was a pistol, time out was my word of the day. her word of the day was "NO".

 If you think Kara's hair looked a mess at the end of the day you should have seen mine! Ha

A garden ripened tomato seemed to sooth her soul just a bit. I think she ate her weight in tomato's in the afternoon. Karsyn however thinks a tomato is "Yuk".

I caught just a bit of the horrible news yesterday morning before the little girls arrived. It's so hard to understand what could have happened to a young man that would inflict such pain and suffering to so many. I can't imagine the horror his parents are dealing with. While the sadness of the victims, their families, and the community is such a tragedy they at least have the prayers and support of our nation. His parents on the other hand are alone in their suffering. My thoughts and prayers yesterday and today are with all of the victim's, this young mans parents as well.

This and That

 Finally finished the Birthday table topper. The topper measures 27x27, nice size for any table.

Added a few rhinestone's to dress it up some.

How did two days pass so fast? I have fluttered from one odd job to the other for the past two days, worked in a nap in the late afternoon and meet with more agents than I wanted to regarding long term health plans, UGH

Hubby is not on board regarding extended care health plans but I think it is something we need to add to our monthly expenses. Our long term goals for our old age is to leave this world at a break even point. Our kiddo's are all grown with good jobs, we took care of all the higher education costs so they are not strapped with 20 years of student loans, all but one has married and is settled down. We have the $$ put back for DD #2 when she is ready to walk down the isle so we really only have to worry about our own expenses from here on out. That being said we could be wiped out if one of us should need nursing care for any extended length of time leaving the one left behind dirt poor. It is so hard to know what to do, start paying the premiums now with the hope it is never needed for many years to come or save that money as we have been doing and hope for the best. lots more thinking, talking and planning to do before we jump into an additional expense that we will have for the rest of our lives.

If any of you have any experience or opinion on long term care please do share with the rest of us in the comments section. I have been asking around among friends that are in our same age group, many of whom are dealing with aging parents needing care. The overwhelming consensus so far is that it is a necessary evil expense that we all should have by our mid 50's. The cost of a plan that would cover hubby and I for 4 years of nursing care in home or at a facility will run in the $350.00 range each month. We would receive $4,500.00 each a month for 4 years in the event we need the care. Once the long term care is needed all premiums would be waved for the spouse that is left standing or if we are lucky the last one with the walker!!

Hexie Quilt Along

 It was so nice to have Tyler back in the kitchen with me yesterday!! It's been way to long.

 He is an expert batter licker.

 Still need to add the green hexies to this block.

 And finish the white and green on this one.

I did at least get a few more bags of hexies worked up so the process should go a bit faster today.

I have decided today is my all about Nanny day, I am going to sit on my rump and work on hexies. After my play date with Tyler yesterday I need some down time and a few weeks of some NO SPEND days!! Tyler was not a cheap date!!

I picked him up early for some breakfast out then on to "Babies R Us" to buy a car seat cover for my car. I don't want to install all of the car seats until I have the covers down to protect the seats, the little ones are MESSY in the car!! Tyler sucked me into buying a few toys by telling me Mason man had no toys at all. Of course he does Tyler he has lots of nice things. Nope they are all my old toys and Karsyn's toys. OK, he really should have just a little something for himself. Tyler picked out a great car that the baby crawls behind to catch. Low and behold when we gave it to Mason last night he crawled for the first time!!!! Money well spent!!!

Tyler thought we should find something educational for the little girls while we were there because they are getting to be a little wild. HA, he is right about that! We got a puzzle each for them and some building blocks, he ask for nothing, just wanted to make sure the others had a prize, so sweet! On to "Toys R Us" to make his birthday wish list, holy cow!!! As we were working on his list he kept finding things the little ones should have. I explained to him we already have things for them it's his turn to pick out a prize. After 2 hours of looking around (my poor feet) he decided on a spiderman action figure, however we needed a bad guy action figure to go along with it so they could fight. Fine by me lets just get the heck out of here.

Time to eat again, he had McDonald's, yuk I had some crackers.

 Next up was "Ice Age 3" with a giant popcorn along with apple juice from home. Before the movie started Tyler explained movie manners to me!! Seems his Papaw gets too loud at the movies so he wanted to make sure I knew the rules. Cute movie BTW

I needed to exchange sizes on some shoes I had bought for the little girls at Kholes, he then realized he too needed new shoes to start school this fall, however we would need to go to "Sketchers" to buy them. Never heard of that store, sounded expensive and it was :(  Along with the new shoes from the dreaded mall we had our pizza, double yuk

Finished off the day with a double batch of chocolate chip cookies, some for here at home, his family, and Aunt Kelli's house. Maybe we should mail some to Aunt Amber as well!! So sweet.

I returned him at 8:30 PM........When I thanked him for going on a date with me he told me that wasn't a date. What was it then I ask? Just a Nanny and me day he said. "Married ladies don't go on dates Nanny, it's not a nice thing to do, you can't have a boyfriend if your married" I do believe this little guy is going to be one heck of a good hubby some day!!!!!

Slow Sunday

 Check out the stream in my neighbors back yard. You can't tell it from the photo but this was crazy rushing water from a HUGE storm that sat over our house for hours late yesterday. we got 3 inches of rain in the first hour before it slowed down, everything is a muddy mess today. 

 Block one of the block of the month club.

 And block two.

I have been working on the free motion quilting for this Birthday table topper for most of the afternoon.

We had a really bad storm roll in yesterday afternoon that took me away from all things electric. Our power was off and on again for a few hours, I didn't get anything done on my wish list.

 This morning I jumped on the block of the month blocks then got busy working on the birthday runner/table topper. What a pain in the rump. Why does it seem patterns all want you to use a different ruler, of course it's always one I don't have. I took me hours of reworking the pattern so I could use the rulers I have on hand, grrrr. Finally have it pieced and the free motion quilting is on it's way but I am done for the night. I should be able to finish it up tomorrow evening then get the binding on. It's going to be really cute. Hard to tell from this photo but I added rhinestones to the cupcake top for a sprinkles look. 

Tomorrow is date day with Tyler, he has our date all planned out. We will be starting with the car wash, one of his very favorite hang outs since he was a little bitty fella. Then on to the "Ice Age" matinee followed up by a lunch of pizza then on to the farmer so he can pick up some food for his family (so cute). He told me he might want to hang out at the house and make cupcakes but he is not sure if he will have the time for that!! HA I ask him if he would like me to make cupcakes for him to take home, "Na, hold off on that Nanny, we will see how the day goes" This from and almost 6 year old. Kid keeps me laughing all of the time.

Off to do a little work on my Hexie quilt, I have been so slack with it this week. Just to much going on to sit and sew in the evenings