A Wonderful Weekend!

I just arrived home from a totally wonderful weekend! My dear friend Debbie invited me to her house to have some girl time together. It was an amazing, relaxing and delightful time! Debbie has an absolute gift for hospitality. When I arrived she had a beautiful space all ready for me, a guest suite, really. The beautiful, spacious, sunny bedroom was comfortably furnished with antiques and family pieces. She had a basket filled with everything any guest could ever need and may possibly forget to bring. There was even a super-soft, fluffy white robe hanging on a hook in the bathroom for me! It did not take me long to make myself comfy there! Right away we fell into conversation! Laughing, talking and lots of EATING filled the first evening. Actually, that is really the basics of what we did all weekend, interspersed with sharing, crying and shopping. But I think those are the things that girlfriends do best! We decided that when we are together both of us are too distracted by talking and laughing to follow simple directions on a recipe! (This resulted in a delicious but completely flopped pound cake!) We learned that the name of the road with all the fun shops on it is 2nd Street. (Debbie couldn't remember what exit it was and the choices are numerous!) I also learned that riding in a Lexus with Debbie driving makes me car sick! (Debbie says the Lexus is just too rich for me! She could be right!) Oh my goodness, I simply could not tell you all of the funny and wonderful things we talked, cried and laughed about while we were together! We drove her husband Mike crazy! I know that God sure knew what he was doing when he introduced us 15 years ago. I can hardly believe it has been that long! (She hasn't aged at all! It is so not fair!!) I am so thankful for my Debbie in my life, and for this delightful weekend together! I am also totally thankful for my husband who took on my responsibilities at home while I was gone! I came home to laundry on the line outside!! Who is this wonderful man I married?!?

Thanks again Debbie! It is hard to come back to earth after being so pampered!
Here are the only two pictures I took the entire weekend. (I just never think about pulling out the camera...my oldest daughter just groans at me!)


Debbie and me at her house in front of the fireplace.
(She is the short GORGEOUS one!)



Debbie at Haupt Antiek Market in Rosemont.

A busy week

It has been a very full week, not in number of activities, but more in number of emotions. Sunday Glen and I were in Minneapolis at a tradeshow. It was a fun a busy day. We met and chatted with many people who were interested in cabins. It was fun to walk around the show and look at all the booths and displays. We were blind to the fact that my dad had been admitted to the hospital in Bemidji with heart problems. Monday we talked with Mom and heard the story of how he was doing. The rest of the day I felt that there was a phone growing out of my ear. So many calls to make between the hospital, my Mom, my brother, Glen, and then back again. I was ready to leave at a moments notice and drive up there to be with Mom if Dad was headed for surgery. Praise the Lord! He is home again and going back for various tests to determine what is actually going on inside his insides. So now I am much more relaxed. Still questioning, but relaxed.
We have had friends over this week...that is always fun! Today is our home school Wisconsin state history class. Tonight Glen and I get to enjoy grown-up time going out with friends, Tomorrow we are having friends over in the morning, then I am driving to see a girlfriend for the weekend! Life is good! I am sure there will be lots of things to write about and I may even be able to post pictures again (Thank you so much Jason, for fixing our computer!) Yes, I am totally loving the warm weather. I have been putting my trays of seedlings out in the sun in a protected area each day and they are thriving! I am still counting down the days till the chicks arrive, and it seems that we will have at least two batches of baby kittens sometime in the near future! If you have been thinking about getting a kitten this is a great opportunity! Here are some words of encouragement from Jer. 29: 11 "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." How reassuring!

The Seeds Have Sprouted!

Yep! You read it correctly, the seeds have sprouted! Those wonderful herb seeds that I planted are pushing green spears up through the soil. Now they need light...lots of light. So I am headed out to the barn to get the grow light and set up a spot for them in the basement. Once the tiny plants have their first set of real leaves I will thin them carefully so each pot has one hardy plant in it. Then with plenty of water and food they should be big enough to plant outside when the nights are above freezing. I did plant a tray of vegetables also, but only the broccoli is up. I will wait a few more days before putting them under the grow lights. Isn't it exciting! Now if the weather would cooperate!!

Lyrics that move me

Twilight
by Shaun Groves
Like the sky before the dawn
While the night is holding on.
Sun and Moon together in the gray.
So my soul is shared by two,
the worst of me the best of you.
Saint and sinner mingle in my veins,
And I pray you'll end this
Twilight, twilight,
I'm torn inside my soul tonight.
The dawning day, the dying night
Oh rid my soul of twilight.
Oh rid my soul of twilight.
Good I know when evil's done
good intentions come undone.
Good to know I know the one who saves me from myself
(chorus)
Oh Lord, paint my heart a solid hue.
Let it be the shade of You.
Break this dreadful in between, inside of me.
Oh let it be Morning!
(chorus)
The sun is coming up in me!
The sun is coming up in me!

The Mysterious Ways of a Farmgirl

In between helping two of the kids with their lessons this morning, I got out the recipe for the rustic cherry tart that I made earlier this week. My goal was to photocopy the recipe for a friend. I read through it again and wished that I had more frozen cherries so I could make another (it would be the third actually). Suddenly I remembered the quarts of apple pie filling that I canned last September. Nothing smells as good as apple pie baking, especially on an overcast and dreary day! So I quickly threw together the crust, rolled it out and popped open a jar of pie filling...something was missing. I always make my apple pies with a crumbly topping instead of a top crust...never fear, the crumble is easy to make. Out came a bowl and in went the three ingredients; flour, brown sugar and cold butter cut it. No problem! I sprinkled the crumble over the exposed pie filling. But wait...the open area of this rustic tart is much smaller than that of a 9inch pie plate! I have lots of crumble left over. Again, not a problem! I have frozen blueberries! How about a blueberry tart with lemon zest and a crumble topping?!? Back to the crust ingredients I went! And I wonder why my jeans are tight?!?! Anyone want dessert??

Never Enough Thyme!

Oh my goodness, oh my goodness!! I can hardly contain my excitement! I have filled one entire seedling tray with herb seeds! How fun is that?!?! Six little pots of eleven varieties and three pots of two others. They are; Basil, Lemon Basil, Italian Parsley, Lavender, Lemon Balm, Oregano, Thyme, Chamomile, Sweet Marjoram, Chervil, Summer Savory, and then Catnip and Sage. Ooooh! Spring, spring, spring!! I still want to find Lemon Thyme, Borage and Lovage. Then I would like to get starts of scented geraniums, two or three mint varieties, and more rosemary. I have a beautiful rosemary that has wintered over in my kitchen for three winters now. I think I can take cuttings off of it. I sure miss the herb greenhouse down in Illinois. Later on (maybe today yet) I am going to start a tray of vegetables too. However, the herbs had to come first! (All this excitement and I truly have only had one pot of coffee!!)

Baby Chicks on the Way!

Though I grew up in the country surrounded by farms, we did not have any animals except cats and one dog. I always wanted a horse, but I don't think chickens were part of the picture of life I had painted for myself...how silly! Our first flock of chickens showed me the error of my ways. Aidan was a baby (funny how I mark time by my children!). We lived in our Carr Lake Rd. house in Bemidji. We knew NOTHING about chickens, but that first box of tiny chicks stole my heart. They were fascinating little creatures with bright inquisitive eyes and striking markings. They scratched and scritched and cheeped, and responded to our constant care splendidly. Although they could fit easily in the palm of my hand they were CHICKENS from day one. When I see the miracle of creatures so tiny that know exactly what they are and how they were made to be, I am amazed again by the designing hand of our CREATOR GOD. How brilliant he is! And full of wonderful humor...for if I can be so entertained by the antics of a few hens and roosters, I know he must be as well! It has been over two years since we watched our own flock pecking and wandering around the back yard. Now the order has been placed, and on April 13th our new babies will arrive in their little cardboard box. I can't wait to see them, hear them, hold their soft downy fluffiness! I can't wait to watch them come running when we call them with the "chick, chick, chick, chick" that announces dinner time. It will be wonderful to reach under a hen in her box and pull out a fresh, warm egg. Chickens somehow make me feel at home, and I think that they will feel right at home here as well! Oh yeah...I suppose now that they are ordered and on their way, I really do need to get out to the barn and make it ready for them!! yes, this does mean that I will have to do some major cleaning! *SIGH*

More Garden Memories

Well, talking about gardens certainly strikes a chord with all of us. So here is another garden memory. (I just wish I could post the pictures! )
We bought our first farm outside the little town of Latham, Il. when Lane was 2 years old. It was homesteaded by Mary Buckles' husband's family and no other family had owned it till we bought. It was on a hill, back off the road and was white clapboard with green shutters. I think they had the house rented for a while, but no one had gardened in years. We expressed our excitement about planting a garden right away. Ken (Mary's husband) dove out in a HUGE tractor and plow and plowed us up a big garden spot. We planted all kinds of vegetables right away, and even though it was July, everything we planted grew and grew and we had hardly any weeds at all! Every morning we would run outside in our jammies and check on our baby plants. It was so much fun!
I was part of the Herb Guild back then. A wonderful group of ladies all interested in gardening with herbs. So I had to plant an herb garden, too. Somewhere I had read that you could use a garden hose to lay out the borders of a new garden. So I got out our garden hose, it was two long hoses connected so it would reach the garden from the house, and made a large half-circle shape. Then I got out my shovel and started removing all the sod. Those two hoses made such a large space that it took me three days to remove all the sod from inside it!! My hands were so sore and covered with blisters. Then an old brick building was torn down in Mt. Pulaski. Glen was a dear! He brought home van loads of bricks and we laid pathways like spokes of a wheel in the garden. I put a bird bath in the center and a bench in one "slice" and tried to fill it with herbs. The following spring, when I was aching for green just like I am now, we had some early very warm days. Ignoring the frost-free date of May 14th, I went to the green house and spent $40.00 on herbs!! I thought Glen would kill me! I planted them all and yes, they all froze three days later when the weather turned cold again! I learned my lesson though! I have never planted before frost-free since then! I planted two more gardens at that house before we had to move back into town. I think I could have lived there forever. Someday I will post all of those pictures...I am looking at them now in my scrapbook. Crazy! I was 25 then...my 2yr. old is now going on 15!! How does it all go by so fast? Say, please come help me with my garden! We can make some new memories here! I would love to have you!

The Herb Garden

We are having numerous computer issues in our house lately, one of which limits my ability to post pictures. I wanted to show you pictures of my last herb garden to help you envision what I would like for my herb garden here. The "canvas" of our farm is open and free from all past attempts. In other words, there are no real flower beds or gardens for me to redo, I can start where ever I want. It is especially freeing to think that I can completely choose my own colors, textures, and flower medium to use. Yet I feel unable to begin. How do I decide where to put the first plants? The yard is huge! Do I start here, or would over there be better? What about closer to the driveway, or how about under the shade of that enormous maple tree. I feel that I need boundaries, and indeed I do. Every garden must start with some form of structure, some backbone for the flowers and foliage to add shape and form to. I think my favorite form of structure in the country is a fence. Fantastic! Finally, a way to begin! But wait, what type of fence? There are so many varieties, each one with its own style and character. How will I decide what would look best here on the farm? Oh dear...so close to success, and yet so far!
I have been thinking about my last herb garden. It was in the tiny fenced-in back yard of our blue house in Mt. Pulaski, Il. That was back in 1998. I remember vividly tearing out the sod all along the inside of the fence to make a bed for the herbs and flowers that I wanted to plant. They all looked so spindly and tiny when they first went in, but by the end of the summer they were lush and full and the garden was beginning to look established. Well, whatever I decide to do here, I know it will take an enormous amount of work, cost more than I can afford, and in the end create a wonderful sense of accomplishment and joy. Time to get out the graph paper and #2 pencils. It is always best to create on paper first, for an eraser fixes a mistake easier than a shovel!

Can She Bake a Cherry Pie?

Yesterday, inspired by my father's birthday, (cherry is his favorite) I did indeed bake a cherry pie. Well, the recipe called the pan-less dessert a "rustic tart", but it was a pie nonetheless. Those who know me understand that this does not mean a store-bought crust and canned pie-filling, but a homemade, flaky pie-crust and frozen pitted sour cherries. This morning I had one of the remaining pieces for breakfast! Yummy!! While eating, it dawned on me that I have never before made a cherry pie, yet sour cherries are one of my favorite fruits. I know my love for cherries goes back to my childhood. I grew up on a country road in central Illinois. There were not many neighbors, but the house on the corner belonged to a family with children, and an old orchard. In the center of all the apple trees was one cherry tree. It was large and lovely with low branches perfect for climbing. My brother and I, along with the two boys who lived there, spent hours up in its leafy shade picking and eating the tart fruit. Since then I have wanted a cherry tree in my life. That dream has yet to become a reality. So this morning, with cherry pie in my tummy, I think I will sit down with the garden catalogs and look for cold-hardy cherry trees. Maybe in a few years we will be eating cherry pie on a regular basis! Oh happy thought!