Friday, September 30, 2022

Not Knitting

There's been a lot going on over the last two weeks and I haven't been knitting much.  Or blogging for that matter.  

Last Monday was pretty traumatic.  My daughter was in an accident and totaled her car.  She's okay now but I was pretty worried about her for a few days.  The airbags deployed and the side one smacked her on the side of her head and she lost her hearing in that ear for several days, plus she was sore from both the airbags and the seatbelt doing their jobs.  It could of have been so, so much worse.  

And now that Sarah doesn't have a car.... I'm driving her all over the place instead of sitting at home knitting.  

The same day as Sarah's wreck, I started an online class geared to improve my Etsy shop.  I'm enjoying the class and even though I've had my shop for over ten years, the class is pointing out a few things I've been doing wrong, or not doing at all.  The downside is it's time consuming and I can't knit and type at the same time.  I need a talk to text program for my computer like on my phone.  Except I'd need it to actually understand what I'm saying. 

We are also preparing to sell our house and lots of extra time has been spent either cleaning and/or doing/fixing things the realtor has requested or vacating the house for the realtor to do what ever realtors do before they put the for sale sign up in the yard.  

And now, we're spending our time preparing for hurricane Ian.  As this post goes live, we should be getting the first bands of rain from the storm.  We aren't expecting much wind but we are supposed to get an awful lot of rain and for days on end.  Thankfully we haven't had much rain lately and the river is pretty low.  We definitely do not need another Gaston.  

One good thing about the coming storm is I have the weekend off from work.  I was supposed to be going to the Montpelier Sheep Dog Trials and Fiber Festival this weekend but it's been canceled due to all the expected rain.  I'm pretty disappointed I won't be going but my debit card is pretty happy.  Specially since Sarah is still happily crocheting and talking about learning to knit.  She's already raided my yarn stash mutliple times.  It could have been a Very expensive weekend!  And now, instead of spending ALL my money, I can stay home, hunker down and knit, knit, knit while consuming my weight in hurricane snacks and booze.  

Anyway, I haven't been knitting much.  But I have had lots of Hayden time and that's always a good thing. 


Hayden is obsessed with my tripod.  She thinks it's a telescope.


We had family firepit night to celebrate official fall and a sudden welcome drop in temperatures.  Hayden was helping me get the firepit set up and decided to read to the fire.  She's definitely spent some time at the library's story time because she was showing the pictures to the firepit and everything.  Cutest thing ever!


She had fun roasting marshmallows but she wasn't impressed with s'mores.  How can someone not like s'mores??


And she's learning to write her name.  Well, she's learning to write an "H" but she does know the letters in her name.  Mostly.  She thinks the 'y' is "y and z."  Also the cutest thing!

Hopefully Ian will be kind to us and I won't miss any more blog posts.  My prayers go out to all the Floridians out there.  

Sunday, September 25, 2022

Sunday Supper - Citrus Orange Chicken


photo courtesy of foodlion.com

Boy, I wish I'd discovered this recipe earlier.  Our local chinese restaurant burned down on July 4th and they haven't reopened yet.  And I really, really miss having Chinese Night.

While this recipe for citrus orange chicken looks slightly more complicated than making a phone call, the cooking time is actually about the same, maybe even less, than having to drive the restaraunt to pick up our order.  And my stove won't care if I'm dressed or still have bed head at 5 p.m.

Enjoy!

Sunday, September 18, 2022

Sunday Supper - Loaded Mac & Cheese

Can you improve on basic mac & cheese?  Yes, yes you can!

photo courtesy of foodlion.com

Loaded Mac & Cheese.  Loaded mac & cheese!  My life is complete!

And while this recipe calls for ground beef, I see no reason why other meats couldn't be used.  Or even no meat at all, although ours will definitely have meat.  I mean, 'loaded' does imply loaded!

Enjoy!

Friday, September 16, 2022

On the Needles

 Have I mentioned how much I love fall?


We have pumpkins at the grocery store now and I can't tell you how much that pleases me.


Perhaps even better than pumpkins at the grocery store are the yarn kits I recently found at Hobby Lobby.  They are Sesame Street One Hat Wonders from Lion Brand and the kits have the yarn and a Sesame Street character head to attach in place of a pompom. They had four or five characters available.  I bought three - Cookie Monster, Big Bird and Elmo.  


We've been having some almost-fall weather lately and it was perfect for a trip to our local county fair last weekend with Hayden.  She had a blast.  


I couldn't believe she climbed that giant slide all by herself.

I really couldn't believe she came down by herself.  And despite the 'slide' being more of a free fall, (she looked like she needed a parachute and it scared me to death but...) she climbed off the base hollering, "Again!  Again!"  She's a little dare devil!

I hope you are enjoying your fall weather.  Happy knitting!



Sunday, September 11, 2022

Sunday Supper - Skillet Pepperoni Pizza Dip

 

photo courtesy of foodlion.com

Football starts soon and that means game-time appetizers.  This recipe for Skillet Pepperoni Pizza Dip foots the bill perfectly.  And just think of all the varieties you could make.  Don't like pepperoni?  Substitute with sausage.  Or bacon.  Or chicken chunks.  Or go healthy with spinach or mushrooms.  The options are endless.  If you can put it on a regular pizza, you should be able to put it on this too.  Yum!

Enjoy!

Friday, September 9, 2022

Is it Christmas already?

In preparation for the craft shows I'm doing this fall, I knit a thing.

And a few more things.


I had planned to write much more elegantly but life happened today.  I had the day off from work and have the thrill of jury duty later this week so my blog writing time was limited to today.  I'd planned to show you a whole bunch of things I've made recently but I got sidetracked and never got the photos taken.  And well, now I'm just too mentally exhausted to say much.

As many of you know, we live right on the edge of the railroad tracks and right beside a busy crossing.  Sadly, there was a horrific, fatal train vs car wreck practically in our backyard today.  It was just awful.  A horrible, horrible accident that I won't go into details about and it seems to have shut down my brain.  As in, completely shut down.  I can't even tell you how many words I've had to correct already because I'm typing the letters backwards.  Not to make light of PTSD, but I think I have PTSD.

I would like to send out prayers to the victim's family, the train conductor, the passengers on the train (the police told me there were no injuries on the train thanfully) and to the rescue workers and clean up crew.  And if the accident wasn't bad enough, it  began thunder storming a few hours into the investigation/clean up process.

And now, in an attempt to rid my mind of twisted metal, I'm going to go take a hot bubble bath with a bottle of wine and a trashy romance novel to keep me company. 

Ya'll be safe out there, and for the love of all things holy, please, please don't try to out run a train!

Sunday, September 4, 2022

Sunday Supper - Roasted Patty Pan Squash

 Have you heard of patty pan squash?

photo courtesy of johnnyseeds.com

I hadn't until recently.  I'm sure I've seen them at farm stands in the fall but just thought they were cute little decorative gourds.  Turns out, they are edible, a good source of potassium, low in carbs and have a bit of fiber and protein.

Anyway, the grocery store I work for has been selling them like crazy and I started asking customers what they planned to do with them. And each customer seems to have their own favorite way of cooking them. So far, I think my favorite seems to be baking the squash, mashing them a little and mixing with cooked sausage.  Sausage makes everything taste better.

Despite my preference for sausage, I found this recipe for roasted patty pan squash from delish.com.  It sounds incredibly easy and it's vegetarian for those of you who don't eat meat.  And if meat prices continue to rise like they have been, we may become vegetarian too.  

Enjoy!

Friday, September 2, 2022

Happy September!

 While I hate to see life passing me by, I gotta say, Damn, I'm glad to see August end.  

I am SO ready for fall!


We have a giant tree, a sycamore I think it is, in our yard and it always sheds it's leaves waaaay before all the other trees.  I sat on the deck for a while today and listened to the leaves fall.  It was awesome!  I always think my favorite calming sound is water lapping against the beach, a boat or pier pilings but really, it's the sound of crunchy leaves falling.

I am SO ready for fall!


And since it's still 90 degrees in Virginia and not actually fall yet, this little guy joined me on the deck.  He hung out and watched me knit.

Happy September y'all!