MEANDERING

I generally compose off-line and paste, but at 6:00 AM, there's not much danger of tying up phone lines against incoming calls. The birds are twittering, it's a foggy FALL morning here in WV. Seems to me the harbingers of autumn come earlier all the time. Or maybe I only got around to noticing them on September school mornings when I was younger.

I has been a one cobbler summer....one blackberry, one peach. If you think the topping looks sparse on the cobbler, you're right. GF likes more berries than top, but I went a little too far this time - first time in 43 years he's said, "I need more bread." There are more blackberries for jam, but the peaches (one new dwarf tree) are all gone. The peach cobbler was good, but I do believe I'd rather have my fruit raw with juice running down to my elbows. More flavor and less guilt, too.

I finally got that Bible cover made. While the serger was out I also finished the edges on a few Hospice bibs. They're all shapes, sizes and colors; serged edges and velcro (new iron on fabric fusion type) fasteners; some with stray fabric, a few with Martha Stewart 'everyday' tea towels. The dish towels were brown/blue striped and I thought they might do well for male patients. Of course terry would work best, but I didn't have terry. So, as Nines says, it is what it is.

Also whipped up a few aprons for Nines. Didn't take a picture - just whisked them off in the mail before she ruined yet another shirt:) Besides I won't want a picture if they don't fit.

Friend Steph is taking me out for birthday lunch tomorrow. I really like eating out on Sundays.Today's cooking may be proportioned to share with Miss Marie tomorrow, since they never get to eat out - unless you count bring-in chicken or pizza. [Wonder if we can appreciate how closed in and lonely being a shut-in could be?] Might need to try that first cookie recipe from mama koch, though I don't see how it could beat the soft ginger!

Time to think about breakfast and sort some laundry....

LIGHTS OF HOME

Everything I touch today seems to have the kiss of catastrophe upon it, so in final desperation I’ll try to blog a bit. That makes no sense, but I’m doing it anyway. Just to be perverse. Now you know where Nines gets it.

The little jar lights were hung on the balcony for the recent campers. DD Laurie couldn’t resist them, and when you add the flasher they look a little like lightning bugs in the jars. Really CUTE! I left them on until all the kids were safely home. I suppose I ought to take them down someday, but my heart doesn’t want to yet.

Erstwhile chores have taken FOREVER or been put on hold for sundry reasons:

• broke another serger needle and can’t find the new package I know I bought recently
• found that the fabric chosen for the Bible cover had a distinct smoke scent when I pressed it – off to the washer for it and other dark pieces of the same genre – (just cannot send a preacher a gift laden with tobacco smoke, you know)
• miscalculated the book cover size, marked the horizontal for vertical, and why can’t I divide 9-5/8 by 2, today; so need to start over with basting lines
• took three tries to print out a simple birthday card – I’ve given up on HP photo pgm, just let me lay it out with Word in a manual fashion. (Of course you know it’s a conspiracy of the printer/paper company – they want you to mess up those $1-per sheets and feel dumb about it; and Works is in on it too– they can’t identify an envelope size in simple inch increments a-tall)
• the last of very few peaches from our ‘orchard’ need to brown bag it another 24-hrs…not that I’d risk making the sole peach cobbler of the season today…no, not today
  

Tomorrow’s trip to Charleston will feature a hundred stops – maybe that will make up for not accomplishing much today. Perhaps I’ll just put some warm socks on my cold tootsies, prop my feet and make a few tomorrow lists. There’s always hope for tomorrow…

GARDEN CRITTERS

I can't remember a summer without garden critters to adorn the kitchen window or stove. A potato that looks like a hippo, a squash riding piggy- back or this cute cuke who turned out to be not an ugly duckling after all.
We've gone from extremely hot and humid to lovely cool nights and pretty clear days here. Last week was green bean canning, applesauce and applebutter making time. I have a container of sauce in the freezer for making applebutter with Splenda one of these days. Any hints?
GF gave in (to Nines, mainly) and made an appt with the cardiologist. He had a pretty good week last week. Isn't that the way it goes - the symptoms always lessen after you call the doctor. He was extra tired yesterday, but I think he's worried about all the family worry and has promised himself he won't complain. Not that he ever did much of that, and not that I'm not a bit sceptical still :o)
Don't you just love it when you look down and your plate and everything on it is fresh from the garden? Yesterday - poor man's stew, green beans, beets, squash and cukes. And blackberry cobbler for evening dessert. Corn and tomatoes were missing, but should be ripe in a week or two.

[The cobbler was fair, but I'm thinking those thornless wonders make better jam than anything else.] The plan is to get out the serger today...so I'm not to be tied to the keyboard for long. Besides, it's coffee time.

THE CREW

I tried to post this pic with the last post, to no avail. Formatting this sight is an exercise in patience which usually leaves me thinking I have none.

BACK to FRONT:
R1: Joseph, Caleb, Timothy, Craig, Bill, Doy
R2: Caitlin, Hannah, Audrey, Beccie, David
Middle: Laurie
R3: Wayne, Peni, Paul, Philip, Nina, Daniel, Lucas
R4 Jacob, Josiah, John, Ben, Lisa, Jonathan
Front: Evabeth, Abraham, Rebekah

We had huge rain and another flooding last night. GF is out doing his survey.

Today is cookie day - the butter softens as we speak. Miss Marie must be feeling neglected by now. I think it will be oatmeal and lemon to make up for absence.

I'm thankful for a cold. At least the loss of appetite makes getting back on track with eating pretty easy. Proof that even misery has it's up side. Hope you're feeling better, Nines

Left Overs -- The Tip of the Teel-berg

THESE SHELVES ARE THE ANSWER TO DAVID'S QUESTION: Is there anything I can do for you, Mom? [I'm on the fast track to becoming the shelf lady, but aren't they lovely?] Leftovers that are meant to last...

There are always leftovers when the visit over the river and through the woods ends. Grandfather just left for the Post Office with a box of leftovers bound for Springport IN. We’ve been adding things since Tuesday evening, the box is full and I’m certain there will be yet a few trailers. That’s just the way it is. (We still had a bucket of toys, etc., from the summer camp of 2004). Some things to keep, some things to send back and some things to never-never-land (a.k.a. garbage or Goodwill).

Thanks to great planning (on the girls part, not mine) there is relatively little left over food. This can be either frozen or shared, including the mustard – we had lots of mustard. Breakfast for us this morning was cereal with blueberries and strawberries – glad they were left! The leftover bread would make a BIG pan of dressing, but it might just go to the birds.

The sweetest leftovers are memories:

• 26 “guests” singing with us in worship at Clendenin – nothing could be more rewarding than having all of your children and grandchildren under one roof serving the Lord. As Aunt Luanne would say, “my heart leaps up.”!
• Sermons by Doy (God’s Grace – which compels a sense of responsibility and gratitude) and David (The Power of the Mind – “a check up from the neck up” / “no stinkin’ thinkin’) and song leading by Luke, Joseph and Josiah
• After dinner devotions with Wayne, Bill, Doy and Craig in turn for the days everyone was here. Subjects: Above All - Please God, Be Gentle, Reverencing the Lord’s Name and Being Close to God, respectively
• Setting up the Moyer camper – Grandfather supervised (with level as well as the Teel “bubble in his head”) as the three Moyer men did most of the grunt work
• Nina’s three youngest napping on the floor
• All the children under 10 playing with large Lego set – a family tradition
• Small, medium and large mud puppies in the creek
• Grandchildren handing off firewood for stacking (after splitting and hauling it from the woods)
• Smiles - especially handsome grandsons and lovely granddaughters
• Timothy and Philip playing in the rain
• Tin can lights along a path to the tents and a string of canning jar lights on the balcony to light the way home (thank you Laurie)
• Midnight meadow madness, sponsored mainly by Uncles and nephews – feet covered with chiggers were tell-take signs of the culprits
• David at the barn door - appearing first in the morning, for coffee making and his Bible reading
• Ben’s bravery – with all those sticks and needles- and mending the ear on his diabetic bear
• Having the Moyers at the Miller Reunion
• Having Laurie to keep me on track – she did an admirable job at an impossible task
• Hugs, hugs and more hugs
• All those earnest prayers
• Banana ice cream – David and Craig made it happen
• Tea shelves - David and Craig made them happen, too
• Bill being Bill (Phil 1:3)
• Beautiful Children and Grandchildren – every single one of them

Let God be praised for safe passage, safe so-journey and precious memories! Our hearts are full to overflowing.

SLEEPING ANGELS

I have a thousand memories of two weeks of Teelside camp outs. This is one of the sweetest. A lot of work, a lot of fun - it hardly seems possible that they've all pulled out today. But it is possible. I know because my bones feel like rubber and my brain is mush. Just think what condition I'd be in if our guys and gals hadn't done all the work! They did work hard. And they did play hard. And they did sleep little. But that's what cousin times are all about. Perhaps I have beaten Nina to the draw with the picture of Abe and Eva napping, but you can see how difficult it would be NOT to share it.

There'll be more stories and pictures -- when my bones and brain return.

I