Mish-Mash

 

Not much being harvested from the garden these days!  I snitched some small lettuce and spinach leaves and made up a half batch of my ranch dressing in the cup.  Can't wait till the weather lets me grow some more vegetables again! Thought I would take the picture in front of the Christmas tea pot and cup.

 

 

I had to spend some time in the kitchen again.  Made some cookies with honey, wholewheat flour, oatmeal and chocolate chips!  Healthy??????  Well, as healthy as a cookie can get!  He-he.

 

 

Also made my "wonderful gardener" four loaves of his favorite cranberry bread!  That should count for a little extra weeding this summer, don't you think!

 

 

Gracie was sick for her own piano recital so she played in Aunt Sue's music recital last night.  She played Jolly Ole Saint Nicholas and did a great job!  We are proud of her.

 

 

We were invited to Gracie's Kindergarden Christmas Luncheon today.  Here is Gracie in her beautiful Christmas dress.  We had turkey, mashed potatoes, dressing, green beans and a wholewheat roll. It was very good! Cake for dessert for those who wanted it.  They had it decorated so pretty and special.  We are blessed to live close enough to go to her activities and loving it!!!

 

 

This is how they had the tables decorated.  We ate by candlelite!  Have a great Christmas season!

 

 

 



What do Gardeners do in the Winter!

It looks like winter has arrived!  But that means that spring must be just around the corner!  What do all of you gardeners do in the winter besides dream and plan your gardens for next year???

 

 

I did spend some time in the kitchen!  Made up more granola and a pan of lasagna!

 

 

My friend, Lib, sent me another gingerbread man towel to enjoy.  Thank you Lib!

 

 

I spent some more time sewing.  I am becoming faster making these table runners!  More to finish!

 

 

I played my flute in the Hobart Area Concert Band Christmas concert. My

"Wonderful Gardener" is my loyal supporter! Also my daughter, Sue, son-in-law Craig, daughter-in-love, Melissa and one of the littles, Gracie attended.

 

 

 

 

Today my "Wonderful Gardener" and I went to the Round Barn Theater to see a Christmas play, Miracle on 34th Street.  So this is how we spend our winter months!  How do you spend yours?



Spring time.....or Christmas time?

 

This is a bird nest from last summer!  Wouldn't it be nice if it was spring time and we would start seeing Robins once again!  Dream on!!!

 

 

Another book from the library!  Helps in the dreaming process!

 

 

This was the very first nativity scene that we purchased after we were married! Our one son thought baby Jesus was cold so that is why He has red felt over Him. It has been set up that way ever since back then!

 



 

At one time we collected Nativity scenes until we had no more room to put them!  My Wonderful Gardener made the one on the left on top of the piano for us.

 

 

A friend made the Christmas heart for me and a talented lady in the Herb Club taught us how to make the large bows.  Now if I could only remember how to do it!

 

 

I love my new quilt rack that hangs on the wall so wanted to share a picture of it with you.  Our son from MD made it!  I am so proud of the wood work that he does!  They brought it when they came for their Thanksgiving visit.  I am one lucky Mom!

 

 

You will never guess what this is!  The chives that I brought into the house in a pot were not doing well so I planted them back outdoors.  Since I am trying to recover from bronchitis I probably should not have been out doing this.   It was an unseasonbly warm day and hey, a gardener has to do what she has to do!  Right?

 

 

If you can see the little bit of green growing in this last picture it is Kale that I planted back on Nov. 6th.  It looks kind of yellow so wondering if it needs more sunshine!  I put a plastic box cover over it at night and uncover it in the daytime.  Perhaps I will luck out!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 



Early Christmas festivities and Pirate Party!!



 This is a video of our early Christmas festivities with the MD family! Our daughter

loves to plan parties and we always have loads of fun when our out of town family visit!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wI3bxtwfsA

 This was our Pirate Party! I hope you enjoyed watching these videos as much as we do! Little ones make festivities so much more fun!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8zS2Mw266o

 

 

 

 

Don't you think my wonderful gardner and me make great looking pirates??

 

 

 

Sewing, Guests, Donuts & Preserving!

A couple friends came over to sew again.  One of them brought this beautiful pillow case she had made to show us.

 

 

Another friend finished this pillow wrap!  Don't you just love it!

 

 

Then there was me who made a couple simple Christmas table runners!

 

 

I also learned how to square up squares!!

 

I also had friends stop by from Michigan!  My friend, Carol, and her daughter.  Her daughter is a Master Gardener and of course I had to show them my yard!!!  We had a great visit!

I finally got to try out my new donut pan.  They turned out more like cake than donut tasting.  I have another recipe using yeast I want to try next!

Still working on dehydrating apples.  One more dehydrator full yet to do and then it is on to dehydrating carrots.

I started eating the dilly carrots that I had canned.  I like them and want to can more!

Of course I had to get a little reading time in also.  This is a book that I checked out from our library.   Everyone have a great Thanksgiving!  We have so much to be thankful for!

 

 

 

 



 



Last Harvest, Preserving, Birthday & Family Pictures

I am sorry to say that my garden produce for this year is about done.  I pulled these carrots today.  I had planted them later than the others in the cold frame.  I will definitely try to remember to plant some at different time intervals next year.  I am still trying to grow a few greens.   I have to remember that it is November and we live in Northwest Indiana!

Picked these few greens and the tops of some green onions to eat tonight.  Love my salads!

This is more parsley that I had dried and waiting to be crushed and put into a jar!  Very pleased with drying parsley and want to do it again next year.

Apples and more apples!  They seem to multiply!  Made baked apple donuts and an apple crisp!

And more apple slices in the dehydrater!  Will I ever get done?  Does anyone else ever feel this way when preserving?????

Melissa and I playing a duet that Sue picked out for us.  I love it that others in the family play the piano or another instrument!

I finally found these donut pans.  See the raised center.  I want to try making baked donuts!  They do look yummy!

Another birthday celebrated yesterday.  I have to admit that this one was mine!  This is just half the family as the other half live out of state.  Sue is missing because she is taking the picture!

A couple of the families had pictures taken by a photographer.  This is the ones that live in Virginia.   Ashley, our son Scott and Emily in the front and grandson, Mac in the back.







And this is one of the families that live near us.  Melissa, Cali, Gracie and our son Michael.  Thanks for visiting with me today!!!







Dill, Material & Littles

My harvest this week was dill and more greens!  I had not planned to harvest the dill until I went to the grocery store and saw the ridiculous price of a tiny bottle of dried dill weed!  It is late in the season here to pick this but thought I would give it a try!

This little bottle of dill was $3.98 at the grocery store.  I found these other two containers of dill weed at a bulk food store the next day.  Price for the total of them was only $1.83!  That was a much better price I would think!

Now that there is not much to harvest maybe I can get a little sewing done.  Got this material on sale plus a 25 percent off coupon.  The black has Treble Clef music signs on it which doesn't show up in the picture.  I think my other hobby is collecting material!!!!!

My "littles" came to visit yesterday!  Here they are hard at work creating!

Playing with the dominoes was fun too!!

This is Gracie with her Daddy!  Sending you lots of smiles this week!