It was lovely weather here over the weekend.  Saturday I took my mother to visit the eldest daughter.  It was a warm Indian summer day, not windy at all.  There are not too many days that are not windy in KS.  Eldest daughter lives in a college town, but there was a big football game at the stadium that afternoon, so everywhere else was not crowded.  We ate lunch on the outside patio of eldest daughter’s favorite restaurant.  I had roasted vegetable tacos with rice and black beans on the side.  It was yummy.  My mother loved the house eldest daughter is renting and her Great Dane, Gabby.  We played with the dog and visited.  Eldest daughter had taken in 2 female kittens that she couldn’t really afford to keep, so we took them to the shelter for her and made a donation to the shelter.  Much easier to do that now.  There is a new grocery store in her town that carries my favorite coffee, so we went there and I bought some coffee for myself and some groceries for her.  All the things that moms do, you know.

The pug was not happy about being left in the kitchen all day on the weekend.  And she barked — scolded me about it when I got home.  So I puttered around and did laundry, etc. Saturday evening.

Sunday afternoon was lovely again, but a bit cloudier and with some wind.  I bought some groceries and finished my housework after church.  Then I took the pug to the park for a nice long walk and then stopped at the library to pick up a couple of books.

Sunday evening I roasted some acorn and butternut squash.  Made a lima bean artichoke heart salad.  Finished a baby sweater that I have been working on.  Finished another bright facecloth for my Sudan project.  Mended an afghan for a friend.  Started on some Christmas knitting.

The fashionista called yesterday.  She had been having some problems with her car, but she got that all worked out and she was in a much better mood.  She called to tell me that she was going to do some Christmas shopping and go into Philadelphia with a friend who would take her to see the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, and some other sights.  I am glad she is getting around some — there is a lot that I would love to see in that area.  I may have to try to visit her there one of these days.

Reading the news about the shootings at Fort Hood yesterday got me to thinking about my Thanksgiving at Fort Hood 11 years ago.  Eldest daughter’s hubby was in the Army and my first grandchild was about 2 months old.  The fashionista was 11 at the time and we went to spend Thanksgiving with eldest daughter and to see the new baby.

I remember thinking that the base was like a city — it was so large!  The kids lived in a small second story apartment just outside of the base and it was very warm there in November.  Naturally, since a mom was cooking Thanksgiving dinner, my son in law invited quite a few of his single soldier friends, which didn’t bother me in the least.

It must have been 85 degrees Thanksgiving Day and I spent most of it sweating in a tiny kitchen cooking a traditional Thanksgiving dinner.  24 lb. turkey, two kinds of stuffing, mashed potatoes and giblet gravy, green bean casserole, corn, rolls, a relish tray, and pies — pumpkin and our family cheese pie, which is eldest daughter’s favorite.

I made turkey enchiladas with rice and black beans and turkey pot pie with some of the leftovers — although with all those soldiers there were not many leftovers.

The fashionista spent most of the week we were there playing with the baby.  She got to feed, change, and bathe the baby.  We spent some time cross-stitching ornaments. I bought the kids lots of groceries and babysat while they went and played cards with friends.  Took them to dinner at a local Mexican restaurant.  Took them to the exchange on the base and helped them get started on their Christmas shopping.

It was an expensive trip, but one that was well worth it.

This morning I was reminiscing about the years we lived in the Twin Cities metro area, and some of our traditions that developed during those years there.  Particularly in the fall.  Every fall I would take the girls out to an apple orchard called Minnesota Harvest.  We would spend an entire Sunday afternoon there.

We would go into the main building and check to see what kinds of apples were being picked, and we would sample a few kinds to decide which ones we wanted to pick.  There were long tables set up with bins of apples to sample and paring knives for cutting the fruit.  Live polka music created a timeless atmosphere.  After we decided on the apples we wanted to pick, we would get our baskets and wait in line for the wagons to drive us out to the orchard.  We would get off at the trees we chose to pick from, and fill our baskets.  The fashionista was pretty little at the time, and she usually ate more than she picked.  When our baskets were full, we heaved them onto the next wagon that came by and went back to the main area.

There was a petting zoo that the little fashionista loved.  The girls would carefully choose their fall pumpkins.  We would have apple pie or apple strudel topped with cinnamon ice cream and listen to more polka music.  We always went home with lots of apples, apple bread, apple pie, caramel dipping sauce, pumpkins, and apple cider.

One year eldest daughter took a helicopter ride while we were there, and the girls rode the spinning apple ride.

And then the drive back home, full, tired, reliving the fun in our heads, and looking at the bright fall colors of the trees.  Ah, those were some good times.

And then we chopped and peeled apples and they both helped me make homemade applesauce, one of their favorites.

Fall in Minnesota was one of my favorite times.

This is a sweet potato week for me.  I am on a kick for sweet potatoes.  Dinner last night was a peeled diced sweet potato drizzled with olive oil, salt, pepper, wrapped in foil and baked for an hour.  I had some green beans and a dollop of cottage cheese with it. 

Recipes I have in mind for sweet potato week are:  Kale, white bean and sweet potato soup; sweet potato and black bean quesadillas; sauteed sweet potatoes and spinach; and I am toying with the idea of making a sweet potato hummus.

Last night I bound off the edges on another organic cotton baby sweater.  Today will be weaving in all those pesky ends, choosing a button and sewing it on, and crocheting a button loop.  Then it will be finito and off to the recipient.  I am quite ready for that to happen.

Eldest Daughter was down to visit a couple of Saturdays ago.  We had a nice visit.  We shopped for Halloween goodies to mail to the Little Buddy and his stepsisters.  I found a darling long sleeve red tee at Target that read Here Comes Trouble and had three cute monsters on it.  Naturally, I had to buy it for him.

I think he liked all his Halloween goodies.

And the Little Buddy sure loves Pez — what kid doesn’t?

And last but not least, the Little Buddy decided to be a pirate for Halloween again this year.  He loves to say AAAAARGH.

And now begins the downward slide to Christmas.  Eh.  My to do list is already fairly long.  I hope I manage to get it all done.  We shall see!

I actually dressed up for Halloween this year.  The pug and I dressed up and went over to the children’s festival at the church and walked around passing out candy.  Lola did very well, although she really didn’t care for wearing her costume.  She let the kids pet her and we only had one incident.  There was a small boy, perhaps age 3, dressed in a dog suit.  I was trying to let him get a candy bar out of the bucket, and I couldn’t figure out why she kept trying to jump on him and knock him down.  The reason — he had a real milkbone hung around his neck!  Ha ha!  His dad broke off a piece of it and gave it to her.

So here we are at the house of a friend of mine.  NINJA and TURTLE.  We stopped there on our way home.  She had made a beverage called Pumpkin Smash and I wanted to try it — pumpkin liqueur, chocolate liqueur, hazelnut liqueur, and vanilla vodka.  It was pretty yummy!

I have had this next picture on my phone forever.  I am now able to move to the next level in my knowledge of technology and email photos from my phone to myself.  This is an organic cotton baby sweater that I made a year ago.

And finally — the pug watching Journey to the Center of the Earth — LOL!

 I love reading the Simply Recipes food blog.  I always get great ideas and I make many of the vegetarian recipes I find there.  Recently there was a recipe for pear butter which I found to be intriguing.  So I got all the stuff — except star anise.  I couldn’t find it, so I just sprinkled in some allspice and I think it worked fine.  I spent a recent Sunday afternoon making a batch of pear butter.  I got 11 jars out of about 6 lbs of pears.  It has a lovely flavor and I think I may make another batch to give as gifts. 

I finished a recycled sari silk scarf and decorated the ends with some old looking coin type decorations.  This scarf was to be sold at a benefit for a young woman who is going to Kenya in January to work at a children’s camp.  One of my friends purchased it and says she loves it, so I am happy about that.

I am still knitting dishcloths for Africa trips, finishing a baby sweater as a gift, several pairs of socks.  And I need to get started on a couple of things I want to do for Christmas.  I believe it was at the Purl Bee’s webpage that I found a pattern for vintage looking dish towels knit with organic cotton.  I am thinking that might be a perfect gift for my aunt this Christmas.

The pug and I went to a cookout Saturday evening and I put her in her costume for a bit.  She looks so funny! 

My church does a trunk or treat event every year.  I think the pug and I will go and walk around for a bit and hand out candy.  She will love it.  She can wear her turtle costume and I think I will dress up as a ninja!  Great fun!

I have been working on a top secret project and it is finally finished.  I dropped it off this morning on my way to the office.  I wrote in one of my other posts about my worship team leader’s wife dying.  He is now a widower with a 6 yo daughter.  So I had the idea that she needed a princess dress either for Halloween or just for dress up if she already had a costume by the time I finished it.  Tuesday evening I took the basic dress over and tried it on her.  The body of the dress is a lilac satin and then I made an overskirt of purple tulle.  She has a tiara that is silver and pink, so we agreed that I would trim the neckline and the sleeves with silver, and add a pink ribbon sash.  While I was at the fabric store, I purchased some pink lace ruffle trim to add to the sleeves so that the sash wouldn’t look like an afterthought.  And here is a front and back view of the dress:

Don’t get me wrong.  I am not opposed to breast cancer awareness and/or the raising of money to find a cure.  In November 2000, I was diagnosed with inflammatory breast cancer stage 3.  The tumor in my breast was 5 cm in size.  I was grateful there was no lymph node involvement.  I am grateful to be alive today.  Three out of ten women with my type of cancer don’t survive past 5 years.  I am very very grateful and truly blessed to be a miracle.

That being said — I don’t want my identity to be taken over by “breast cancer survivor.”  That is just a very small part of who I am. Does being a “survivor” mean I fought harder than someone else?  No.   There are other attributes for which I would prefer to be known.

And in October, pink is everywhere.  The pink ribbons are everywhere.  Manufacturers go all out in October (earlier than that, actually) with big advertising campaigns for “pink” products and all the slogans promise money to breast cancer research.  I AM NOT AGAINST EVEN A SINGLE PENNY for a cure for breast cancer.  BUT — does buying all those pink products guarantee that money does indeed go towards finding a cure?  I think not.  I think we can all agree that the manufacturers of these pink products pocket much more in profits than they donate.  And I believe that most of the ads are misleading — there are caps on the amount donated and money over that cap goes to normal profit, you have to use certain coupons — I am sure there are many tricks used in these advertising campaigns. 

Will buying that pink beribboned item really make a change?  Or is it just playing into our consumer-driven culture? A way of doing something for a cause without really doing anything?

I just had to get that all off my chest — no pun intended.  I intended to write today and put up photos, but my office computer is not cooperating with my camera, so I will load the photos this evening and post again later.

It is foggy and chilly and drizzly here today.  But a tad warmer than the entire weekend.  Upper 30s and low 40s for the highs on Saturday and Sunday — felt more wintry than autumn-like.

Last week was a difficult, sad, and busy week.  My worship team leader’s wife died while he was on a mission trip to Uruguay.  With her death, the details of some of their personal life that he had tried to keep quiet naturally surfaced.  So he is now a widow with a daughter in first grade.  Eh.  So I coordinated the meals for the family and then took Friday off to help with the funeral dinner after the service on Friday. 

Friday evening was a total veg out night.  Pretty much sat on the sofa drinking wine and petting the pug who had a major need for attention since I was busy every evening last week.

Saturday morning I got out and returned some shoes, exchanged a sweater, and bought groceries.  Then went home and spent the rest of Saturday cleaning and then cooking.  I made homemade minestrone soup, potato soup, eggplant parmesan, roasted butternut squash, and a squash and potato stew.  Now I have lunch and dinner for this week.

I didn’t sleep well Saturday night for some reason.  And I had two services to play yesterday morning — and I felt as though I had a grain of sand on top of my right eyeball — miserable miserable!  So after lunch and reading the paper, I got a blanket and laid on the sofa the rest of the day.  I think I needed that.

I did talk to the fashionista yesterday.  One of her young charges contracted the swine flu at school apparently.  She has been exposed and she and the other child are going today for immunizations.  I really hope she doesn’t get it.

I am nearly finished reading Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith.  The book is published by appropriately named Quirk Books and is a Quirk Classic.

This is taken from the back cover:

“‘It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains.’

So begins Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, an expanded edition of the beloved Jane Austen novel featuring all-new scenes and bone-crunching zombie mayhem.  As our story opens, a mysterious plague has fallen upon the quiet English village of Meryton — and the dead are returning to life! Feisty heroine Elizabeth Bennett is determined to wipe out the zombie menace, but she’s soon distracted by the arrival of the haughty and arrogant Mr. Darcy.  What ensues is a delightful comedy of manners with plenty of civilized sparring between the young lovers–and even more violent sparring on the blood-soaked battlefield.  Can Elizabeth vanquish the spawn of Satan?  And overcome the social prejudices of the class-conscious landed gentry? Complete with romance, heartbreak, swordfights, cannibalism, and thousands of rotting corpses, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies transforms a masterpiece of world literature into something you’d actually want to read.”

It is campy and fun and gruesome all at the same time, and I am enjoying reading it. If you are a Heroes fan, in the first episode of the new season titled Orientation, the professor administering the AP mathematics test at Claire’s college is shown reading this book.