Last day of summer vacation…

How did it go so fast?

On the agenda for today:

• Make birthday meal for middle son – birthday actually tomorrow, but I work all day tomorrow, so we are eating the fancy meal today.
• Get middle son back and forth to a mowing job this morning.
• Housework and laundry – hmm.. last day of summer, good time to do it, but, last day of summer, maybe I will knit instead.

Oh, and then there is this.

What could have caught these boys attention?

See what they see?

The first of 6 trailers arrived this morning.. the house is coming today. So I will be

• Updating house blog.

Stay tuned!

A few birthday photos…

The birthday day was quite sweet for 16. It was a mix of responsibilities and pleasure. He mowed the lawn and weedeated and went to the oral surgeon to hear his wisdom teeth do need to come out. And he enjoyed his meal, and his gifts, and then set off to spend a weekend with a loved uncle.

Food photos were added to the last post, and here are a few more.

The birthday boy and bridge, set up by the youngest brother for the oldest.

Set and ready for celebration.

Brothers' hand drawn cards, treated with respect and thanks.

Only a few candles, but tradition was carried out, and he got them all in one blow.

The dawn breaks on a special day…(Edited Saturday to add photos)

Well, actually the rooster started it all this morning. He managed to get out of the coop, and he circled the house, crowing and crowing, the imp. Never has a bantam sized rooster been so loud! But he was heralding in what should be a momentous day.

First, because 16 years ago at this time, I was doing laundry, my water having broken at 5 am… laundry and pacing and being just a bit afraid, because my first child was finally on his way. By 5 pm, he would be here and present. But from dawn to about noon, I was washing and pacing and rocking in the chair I planned to rock him in for months to come.

The eldest is 16 today. 16 is a milestone age. He will not get a car.We are not that sort of parents. But he will get a lot of love, and a special meal. Usually, the boys pick their favorites for me to make for their day. But this year, the eldest boy decided he wanted me to surprise him.

What to choose? This is the child that eats everything, is willing to try anything, and has always been a pleasure to cook for. But, he does have favorites, and whenever we go out, fried shrimp is a popular choice.  So I will make a fancy meal (for us anyway) of coconut fried shrimp, beer batter fried shrimp, fried onions and fried zucchini strings. His cake is different this year as well. He is a fan of our local dairy’s ice cream cakes, but  when we get one, I miss the joy of presenting him with something handmade. So this year, I made a whimsical ice cream cake of sorts. It was fun to make, and I think we will all enjoy eating it.

Here are the recipes I am using, along with some edamame and steamed green beans, it should be a fun meal for most of us. The  middle child will grumble.. but no worries, his birthday is next week, when he will get to choose.

Pioneer Woman Onion Strings – I will use old southern beer batter recipe for the other type of shrimp.

These were the best onion rings, and the zucchini strings can be seen peeking below.. sooo sweet and yummy!

Coconut crusted shrimp

These were quickly demolished.. and they were pretty to look at with the coconut on the shrimp.

Fried Zucchini Strings – see photo with onion rings for a tiny peek.. they disappeared quickly.

Ice Cream Cake

This was beyond yummy!

And perhaps, fingers crossed, the house will arrive today. Thunderstorms were predicted and scared the builders away from Wednesday… and we had no rain. So now they think they will bring it today with a view to setting the house on Monday. It will be odd to have it feel like Christmas for me on my son’s day. But all of us are practically out of our skins with excitement.  Fingers crossed.

And in the middle of the day, I have to take eldest to the oral surgeon for a consult about his teeth. He had his braces removed earlier this summer, but then the dentist discovered last week that his wisdom teeth (3rd molars) appear to be growing into his jaw. SO, probably surgery. Not today of course, but this is the first appointment to decide on a plan. So the poor boy is learning that with maturity comes the inevitability of being grown up, even on your birthday.

Later this evening the man about the place will drive the eldest to the coast where he will visit his uncle for a few days. They share the same personalities and learning issues and love of cars and therefore are a good match. The eldest likes to go down and help the uncle with all his projects. SO it will be a nice weekend for the 2 of them.

Whew… busy today! But come back this evening when I hope to have pictures of this milestone day!

New knitting….

Here are some sneak peeks at my latest project, the Ring of Tara jacket from the August issue of Knit N’Style.

So far, the knitting has been easy.. but I am afraid it will be too big! The lace bottom was quick and easy to learn the pattern for, and I love the wrap front. Details will continue at Ravelry for those wanting more. I still have to knit up the sleeves, but they are 3/4 and half lace. So hopefully, I will get it done quickly.

Wanted to block it and get the shoulder seams done though. I left the stitches live to try and graft them, rather than seam them. Hope that will make for a prettier finish.. but what do I know, lol!

We are at T-3 and counting….

There has been a lack of posting here because I have been posting daily updates for family over on This New House. And we have been busy. I have continued to write lessons for my new course, taken three boys to dental/doc and this morning eye appointments as we get ready for back to school. Much needed unders and socks were purchased during the annual tax free back to school shopping weekend.. and we have been having fun with some friends in the last of summer entertaining. Hardly room to breathe.

The man about the place has cleaned and tidied the entire bottom of the new barn so he can store all the bits and pieced we salvage from this house. And of course, there has been work on the grounds as buildings come down and old barn flotsam and jetsam gets put away and hauled to recycling centers.

There has been some knitting.. hope to post that later today. But hopefully, weather holding, stars aligning.. the main focus this week will be the arrival of the house on Wednesday, and the craning of the boxes into place on Thursday. If you want to follow this process, check out the other website. Apparently, the man about the places grandmother is so excited about this, she is having her middle daughter bring her down to watch, which has prompted the inlaws to decide to host a roast picnic for us in our yard while the excitement happens. So it will be a very fun week. I hope.

The worst part of course will be seeing this wonderful house on the property finally, but not being able to “touch it”. The interior will still have work.. plus septic and hook-ups of all sorts… All of us are itching to get inside and unpack and make it home.. but we must be patient.

But at least the countdown is on!

Knitting photos soon!

Flurry of Posts 3 – The new house

The New house is coming along and keeping us busy and on our toes. I have spent a lot of time recently looking into appliances. Our fridge is over 13 years old, our stove is 9, and we have decided we will replace them with energy efficient appliances in the new house. So I have been shopping around, seeing what is new, comparing prices.

I have also made a website for the new house for our family and friends to keep up with the events surrounding it. So here is the link for those curious to see how it is coming:  This New House.

View out the utility room.

If you have any insights into kitchen appliances, feel free to leave me a note. Convection, traditional, ice in the door, microwaves (never had one, this plan calls for one above the range), dishwashers that actually wash dishes, black or stainless… let me know what you like, don’t like, what you wish you had done differently!

Flurry of Posts 2 – Sewing…

2 summers ago I was getting ready to have major surgery that was supposed to have me out of action for 9 weeks or more. So, I was making freezer meals, prepping my school classroom, cleaning and doing all those things necessary to keep the family running smoothly while I was out of action. At that time, I cut out a bunch of shirts I planned to sew.. I hoped that during my recovery I would be able to sit at my sewing machine for short spurts. I knew I would not be able to crawl around cutting out fabric, but I thought I would be able to sit a sew – even just a few seams at a time.

Well, it didn’t really work that way. I was able to do lots of knitting, but not the sewing so much. So I had 2 shirts sitting there waiting to be stitched together. And in preparation for the move, I have been trying to complete just such projects.So 2 blouses are now complete and I am enjoying wearing them.

One is Butterick B4168 – now discontinued but still available. Here is the pic from the pattern envelope:

My version is made of a plain purple cotton fabric… lovely and cool.

The second is New Look 6598.

This is not a pattern for beginners.. the collar is tricky and the instructions are sparse. Also, my buttonholes are in the wrong place.. too far over. But the blouse is wearable, and I have enjoyed it this summer. These are not the best pictures of it.. but it is a lovely floral print. It reminded me of the Liberty of London fabrics I had viewed at the posh shop in town… but were too expensive. This was a sale remnant on the Joanne’s counter.

Love the notch on the sleeve

Flurry of posts 1 – what have I been doing?

Knitting – finished up a lovely scarf I plan to wear as an accessory this fall.The PTSO at the school runs a lovely teacher appreciation week each May, and this year teachers names were drawn before and after school each day to win baskets made up by the parents and communities. You could pick from your choice, and I picked the basket made with the help of my local yarn store. It had 2 skeins of lovely yarn, a gift certificate and some Eucalan yarn wash. What a treasure! And I enjoyed knitting up the first skein into this lovely scarf.

Details are here on Ravelry for the knitters among you. The pattern is Commelina by Kelly McCraw, which is a free ravelry download. And the yarn was 1 skein of Twisted Sisters Zazu.

The days continue to fly by….

• I spent 2 days at a workshop for school. Enjoyed it.
• We have almost cleaned up from the tree. Almost.. the largest chunks have been moved.
• We have staked out the outline of the new house.. and restaked, and staked again.. and now we think we have it in the right place for the surveyor to come and stake.
• And packing continues. And old sofa left the house for a new home, and boxes continue to be filled and taken to the inlaws for storage. Sort, pack, clean, repair… means the house is in a constant cycle of mess, but things are being gathered to donate, sell, give to neighbors etc… and in fact, are leaving the house.

Which brings me to a couple of new posts about my childhood toys. My mother and her mother were very crafty.. and they loved to paint. So my childhood was full of lovely handmade things, and my grandfather and dad usually got roped into helping.

For my entry today, I will show you my dollhouse. Now, my grandmother made an entire colonial village for my sister and I – exquisite and very detailed… a colonial house, a general store, a one room school house and a fabric store. But for my first, I could touch and move everything house, my mom and dad made a lovely basic house and it was my 5th birthday surprise. My friends loved it so much that my dad went into production and selling thse doll houses for quite some time.

Dad made the basic house. Mom painted the outside, and decorated the inside with material from decorator samples. She would get sample carpet and wallpaper books, and use those to decorate the interior.

Front

Somewhere there are a set of front stairs to get to the door.

My mother loved to paint.

Fireplace

The house had a fireplace and a chimney. Now, I grew up in Texas, in hot, steamy Texas, where noone had a fireplace because…it was hot and steamy. But my mom was enamored of them, so my house had a chimney. Our real house eventually had a fireplace as well, when they added on a family room.

Snow covered house

My dad was a model railroader, and knew all sorts of scenery tricks. At one point, we decided the house had to have a snowy roof… so the roof got this treatment.

The inside

The house was as tall as I was when I was five. We could sit or stand and play.

Furniture from Germany

The inside furniture came from lots of sources.. including some from a trip my grandmother made to Germany to visit family.

We had the house up for a few days and the little one played in it with his playmobile.  But now it is packed up again.. maybe someday I will have granddaughters to enjoy it? Or maybe in my second childhood, I will redecorate it.

Much Ado about Squash….

I love yellow squash, pattypan, zuchinni, roly poly.. all squash, I love. And in a normal year, I would have planted a garden full of it.

But this summer, the garden has not been planted due to the house business. Which is fine, because neighbors who have squash keep brining it by, and we are happy to take it.

Well, I am happy to take it, and the man about the place is as well. But the three boys roll their eyes. They will eat a tiny serving, but it is clearly not their favorite vegetable. Even the eldest, who will generally eat anything and everything.

So what to do?

This basket was overflowing with squash – lovely, organic, yellow squashes of all kinds.

The middle son likes to cook, so I said to him.. .I wonder what would happen if we made carrot cake and zuchinni bread, but used yellow squash instead?

He was game to try.. so he shredded a food processor bowl full of squash.

This amount of squash made 2 loaves of zuchinni bread, using the Better Homes and Gardens recipe, and one 9 x 13 carrot cake from this recipe: Mennonite Girls Can Cook.

There was still  some squash left… so, being the creative, resourceful mom I am, I decided to try potato pancakes…

A little egg, flour, onion, salt and pepper

So, the verdict? All boys agreed that squash pancakes were a better way to eat squash than sauteed with onions or raw in salads or gratin’ed.

The first loaf of squash bread didn’t last until it had cooled, and the other has been a lovely snack.

And the cake? We decided not to do cream cheese frosting so the youngest would be able to eat it.. instead we did a pineapple juice and powder sugar glaze… and the entire thing disappeared before I could get a photo.

So, a success.. which is good, because that basket is now full of yellow squash again.

What do you do with squash?