Just 'Cause It's Green

...don't mean it belongs in the garden.

Apparently I spent the entire spring and summer figuring that almost anything green out in the garden areas around the house was a plant that ought to be there. Wrong! I did pull stuff every so often, but today I filled three big trash bags with weedy things and rose bush trimmings. I think part of my challenge is that I didn't grow up with weeds (a happy thing, actually). We had vinca and pine trees--easy. I found things out there today that look exactly like the "rumor weed" in Veggie Tales. Ugly!

Also, note to self: Always buy the non-sprouting seed for the wee little birdies in the backyard. My first bag this year was non-sprouting, but the second was normal stuff. I had the craziest things growing under the bird feeder for like a seven-foot diameter. I still have some stuff out there now that I have no idea whether I should pull it or not. It looks like giant pumpkin leaves, but when I tried to pull the stems from the ground, I discovered that I could use the vines to swing from an airplane, they're so strong and embedded so deeply. So, stay they shall!

I was thinking I might do some Thanksgiving grocery shopping tonight, but yard work and putting away the patio furniture for winter has convinced me otherwise. I am very happy it's done, though; I think I picked one of the last dry, not freezing weekends left--whew!

The final lawn/garden need I have? To figure out how to keep some neighborhood big dog from using my lawn to leave his "presents" on, and some smaller cat or chihuahua-thing from using the dirt on the side of my walkway to my front door for its smaller "presents". Rude! Blech!

Off to continue making the Thanksgiving ingredient list! We've been in the habit of adding ham to the table for Thanksgiving since we discovered I have a slight allergy to fresh turkey (ridiculous, I know). Since it's just the three, maybe five, of us this year if Grandma Mel and Bud come, we won't buy a big ham, but we need a little ham chub. Since the turkey has always been named "Marley", Dad and I thought we needed a name too for the little hammy guy. We wanted to stay in the A Christmas Carol theme, like Fezziwig or something. Mom said it has to be Babe or Hamlet, so Hamlet it is (I think it ought to be spelled Hamelet, like Omelet), 'cause there is no way I am eating Babe!

I just noticed the wee little birdies are now out pecking the ground where I yanked up the weeds from under the bird feeder. I must have churned up something yummy for them. Nibble away, little birdies!

Swoop!

Tee hee hee! Just a little over six weeks until SWOOP Day!

Winter break will have started and Mommy will be Christmas shopping down the hill...and then...
Swoop! I fly into Ontario about lunchtime!
Swoop! Mommy scoops me up from the airport!
Swoop! We land at Cheesecake Factory (or somewhere equally scrumptious)!
Swoop! We dance right back into Christmas shopping, giggling in the car, getting lost in the wrong parts of town, seeing Christmas lights, and buying goodies for people we love!

Yes, I am giddy over the thought...I can't WAIT!

More Little Happies

I don't know what's up with the pictures and quotes thing from me at the moment. Just roll with it :) At least, that's what I am whispering to myself...

On earth there is no heaven, but there are pieces of it.
- Jules Renard

The poetry of the earth is never dead.
- John Keats

The reason people find it so hard to be happy is that they always see the past better than it was, the present worse than it is, and the future less resolved than it will be.
- Marcel Pagnol

I know that you believe you understand what you think I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.
- Robert McCloskey, author of Blueberries for Sal (a favorite of someone I know!) and Make Way for Ducklings

Smack

I want to smack my head into my desk. I bought my airplane tickets for Christmas last week and felt like I had found a good deal for the season, just a little over $400.

I just clicked on an ad in a sidebar of a news story here in Idaho, and found fares for the mid $300s.

Smack.

Taking Pictures

Just me, snapping pics, gathering quotes, embracing the beauty and ache and change and glory of autumn...

If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.
— C.S. Lewis

Youth is like spring, an over praised season more remarkable for biting winds than genial breezes. Autumn is the mellower season, and what we lose in flowers we more than gain in fruits.
— Samuel Butler

Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.
— John Muir

Autumn is a second spring where every leaf is a flower.
— Albert Camus

Eh Gad!

I have the nicest memories of making fudge with my Grandma Mel. I remember being little and being in her kitchen in the house on Moon Drive, and all happy and chatty with Grandma while we made one of her favorite treats (and mine!), some with walnuts and some without.

I have vague memories about the ingredients. Marshmallow creme, chocolate, evaporated milk, something, something.

Today I made Alton Brown's Stove Top Mac-n-Cheese. It calls for 6 ounces of evaporated milk, and I always wind up with the other 6 from the can going bad in the fridge; I can never use it fast enough. In fact, I never use evaporated milk except when I make this recipe. Today I decided, enough. There must be something to make with that silly other 6 oz.

I Googled "recipes '6 oz evaporated milk'". Of course, I found fudge. I found a recipe that needed the right amount of evaporated milk, told me how many big marshmallows I could cut up since I didn't have minis or creme, and could use chocolate chips instead of baking chocolate. We're in business!

I start cooking. Holy cow. So, fudge is sugar, sugar, sugar, and butter? And enough evaporated milk to make it kinda liquid I guess. I stirred 2 cups of sugar with 10 big marshmallows and added that to 8 ounces of chocolate chips and a full stick of butter--good heavens!

Guess I'll be taking a pan of fudge to unload on everyone else at work tomorrow! That thing certainly can't stay here alone with me...

How I Spent My Summer Vacation

Elizabeth ought to recognize all the potential fun in that title immediately.

I received a happy little package in the mail a couple of weeks ago: DVDs that Daddy made from our vacation in Idaho this summer! Now, after learning how to convert the DVD format video into web-friendly video (Kathie does little happy dance here), I could show you the splashing around in the wading pool on my patio (Michael included) or fun experiments at the Discovery Center or amazing shots while miniature golfing or LOTS of playing ladder ball at our cousin's house in McCall...but, no. While fun-a-plenty, the best stuff is my sweet mom (who gave me permission to post these--yes, I asked!) watching television with her grandsons.

Why television watching, you say, as the recipient of the hilarity award from the summer plethora of fun? Because we watched Planet Earth, a fascinating series about animals and environments all over the planet, on it, under it, and around it. It really is an amazing series, and one I highly recommend. The boys LOVE the episode about caves and the unusual critters that dwell therein. They wanted to share that fun with Grandma.

Grandma turned out to be more fun to watch than the Planet Earth episode :)

For your enjoyment, I present four brief snippets of "Grandma Nancy Tries to Be Brave." And not scream. And hide behind a six-year-old. And not run away.

Trying to be brave...




Trying not to scream...




Hiding behind a six-year-old...




Trying not to run away...



Thanks Mom and Michael for letting me post these! They make me laugh every time! And I love listening to the boys using giant words in here. Mom, you are the best...and I am sure right now Liann is realizing that I get my toe-curling that she has teased me about for years from you...it makes us family :)