August 28, 2011

It’s  that time of year, again.  Yippie!   The holiday season begins on September 1 in our household, if not a little sooner.  Sometimes people ask me why we do this.  Click here to find what I tell them.

Patrick and Katie fluff the limbs

Mary is backed into a corner

Fluffing the top

Holding the tree up because it keeps trying to fall down.

Wrapping the lights around the pole

“You missed a spot.”

Still trying to keep the tree from falling down

Flamingos and Palm trees this year….

 

Let the holiday season begin!!  Merry Christmas, everyone!

Because the Holiday is Just Too Lovely to Enjoy For Only 1 Month

I love Christmas Trees. I do. They cheer me, bring me joy, and lift my spirit.

Back when I was a normal person who even considered social norms, our family used to wait until the first weekend of December to put up the tree (Having children on the Autism spectrum taught me to throw social norms out the window).But, the year came when I just couldn't wait till December, so we put it up just before Thanksgiving. Then the next year the kids just started asking about it in October (I am easy to convince on this subject), so it went up just before Halloween for years after with just the lights (but waiting until Thanksgiving to put the ornaments on). And then it stayed up for months after Christmas, usually April, sometimes May.
The Holiday is just too lovely to enjoy for only one month.
Then we moved to Arkansas and, truly, normal became only a setting on a washing machine. My husband was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor and our world was turned upside down.
Well, the person who is not going to recover from an inoperable brain tumor gets everything they want, as far as I am concerned, so on September 1, 2004, before my husband died (May 2005), he asked for the tree to go up rather than wait till the end of October. So up it went; anything to bring him peace and contentment in his adversity. And it was Christmas day, every day, until he died.
So, now, my friends, it goes up when the time feels right.
Merry Christmas!! God bless us, every one!

 

Summer so far

We’ve been having a busy summer with gardening, working, drawing, harvesting, knitting, art projects…..

This is the garden in mid-July.  We’ve got lots of volunteer okra that comes up every year.  Using painted tires as planters added such fun and color to the scenery.

The yellow zinnias are a stand out sight this year.

 Katie and the monster melon

The cantaloupes were monstrous!!  I used compost this year in my garden. Funny thing, about compost.  Most of what went into my garden were volunteers that grew from the compost. 

I made fabric strip dolls with the kids and moms (and even the Branch President) at our Pioneer Day celebration at church.

Patrick ordered a Ukulele this summer and has been having nothing but fun!

Mary learned to knit two gloves at once on circular needles and has been knocking them out fast.

She is trying to get ahead with the autumn- colored fingerless gloves. They are her biggest seller every fall and winter.

We had my birthday.  I made a yellow cake with home made orange frosting.

Mary knitted a pair of socks for me.  Love them!!

My mom came to see me on my birthday.  *;-.)  Bad Granny!

I have been making lots of Peach Vanilla jam and lots of Strawberry Peach jam.  Yum!!

Buddy’s Side of the Story

New Guardians of the Garden

My mother has been in my garden again. 

Sparkly Rose!!!  Luckily it did not scare off the butterfly on the yellow Zinnia to the right.

Are you very afraid?  It works though, because I am still harvesting Chinese Red Noodle Beans.

 

Another Guardian of the Cantaloupes.  Don’t be fooled by the Precious Pink color.  

Don’t be fooled. She only looks sweet…..