Wednesday Link Love

So, I made these breakfast cookies. I would have taken a picture of the ones I made….but they all flew off the plate pretty fast!

And if the Mennonite girls make them, these farmer’s brownies must really be good.

I want to make one of these to add to the fall decor.

Scroll down on this one to see the beautiful rainbow bedroom.

Ohhhhhhh I love this idea! Someone is going to get something very fun from me in the mail in the near future!

The kids are coming home next weekend. Maybe I’ll make these for breakfast!

Around a Bowl of Fire

Tonight was the night!  My first fire in my fire bowl.   DH and I settled all of the world’s problems, and then he left me to my own musings.  After I re-designed my kitchen, I pondered mysteries.    Made me think of this-

Mysteries, Yes

Truly, we live with mysteries too marvelous
to be understood.

How grass can be nourishing in the
mouths of the lambs.
How rivers and stones are forever
in allegiance with gravity
while we ourselves dream of rising.
How two hands touch and the bonds
will never be broken.
How people come, from delight or the
scars of damage,
to the comfort of a poem.

Let me keep my distance, always, from those
who think they have the answers.

Let me keep company always with those who say
"Look!" and laugh in astonishment,
and bow their heads.

~ Mary Oliver ~

Music Monday

Kendra and I saw the new Fame this weekend. She enjoyed it, but it only made me remember how much I loved the original.

Edit, Add, and Appreciate

 Edit-  This is a message to everyone I have told lately of how Willow seems to be growing out of her mischievous puppyhood, how she hasn’t eaten anything inappropriate lately.  Well, I don’t guess apple cobbler in and of itself is inappropriate.  An entire cobbler though-  that’s inappropriate.  Please ignore my previous optimism.

Add-  Our friend Carla told us today of the way she and her two beautiful little Chinese daughters celebrate the Mid Autumn Moon Festival- a major Chinese holiday.   They aren’t so much on the traditional bean cakes, so they eat moon pies while looking at the moon and talking about the people they are thankful for.  I think I’ll be hunting up some moon pies this week, and hope for a clear enough night to see the moon on Friday.

Appreciate-  After 5 1/2 days of non-stop rain, the sun peeked through the clouds last night for a couple of hours.  We were ecstatic.   We hopped into the convertible and headed to a neighborhood street festival which was great fun………even when the sky began to rumble and when it began to drizzle and when we got soaked to the skin getting back to the car.    Today was beautiful and every time I stepped outside for anything I just had to exclaim how very wonderful it was to anyone who could hear me, and had heard me the last 7 times. 

Wednesday Link Love, on a Thursday

Oh my, these are so good!  I could hardly enjoy them though for thinking how much my sister would love them even more!

I wish I had a little one to make these for.  I’m thinking my own kids are a bit too old……

So, what do you think?  I think they sound kind of good!

Ohhhhhhhh is this baby cute or what?

Art can be found in many places.

During the long winter months, I’m going to go back and read my friend Beth’s posts about the farmer’s market over and over to give me hope!

I have watched this video over and over again because it is so adorable.  It is made doubly sweet if you read Amy’s post from yesterday.

This post from my friend Suzanne’s blog this week rang so so true for me.  I was rescued a year ago.

I just love Antique Mommy and this post made me smile.

Ohhhhhhhhhh, I wish I had these for my girls!

And now I really really want to make one of these!

Music Monday

Singing this tonight for two reasons- my bags are packed and I actually will be leaving on a jet plane in the morning, and also thinking of Mary Travers in the week of her passing.

Edit, Add, Appreciate

Edit- Today I made a big concession. I finally accepted that I a) no longer have children who make their lunches. Actually, I haven’t for a good 3 years…. b) I can no longer afford the luxury of maintaining the “lunch closet” when so pressed for space around here. For years I had a special closet that I kept stocked with all of the mix and match items the kids would want/need to pack their lunches for school. My kids became way too cool to eat a lunch in 2006! I still kept similar items in there for snackers, but really now there are only 3 of us with only one of us being much of a snacker at all. Sooooooooo today the closet was emptied and rearranged, but I know that we will forever call it the lunch closet.

Add- K and I took a “snow day” off from church today. We both were really tired, she was coming down with a cold, I needed some nesting time, and it was pouring down rain. Settled. We hunkered down and I loved having this long stretch of time at home. I think I'm going to take a snow day more often.

Appreciate- I have the best neighbors in the world, and best of all is my next door neighbor. He and I are kindred spirits on many levels, with one being our appreciation for locally grown produce. He attends an Amish auction on Fridays and buys wonderful gorgeous produce there that he uses in boxes for low income community folks near his church. He is very generous and shares with us most every week. This week there were beets in the mix, and the great thing about being the only beet lover in the house is I get all of them! We had the best sweet corn tonight I think I’ve ever had. Tomorrow I’m going to cook up that basket of gorgeous baby yellow squash. The telltale reminder of how rich I feel tonight would be the red stain around my nails! Can’t thank my neighbor enough!

The Mother of all Care Packages….

I spend a lot of money  time lately putting together care packages, so seeing this little story on the 4 Reluctant Entertainers blog caught my eye.   What, a care package for moms?  I’d like to win!

8 Things

8 Things that made today’s Phoenix Hill MusicFest memorable for me

1.  The newlyweds who just moved in up the street jumping up spontaneously and dancing during the first act - and the kindness and tenderness I noticed that they extend to each other.   Sweet folks.

2.  Meeting our newest neighbors who have just moved here from Guatemala and hearing the pros and cons of this transition.

3.  The little boy who got up and danced to Billy Jean when the band was doing it.  He was a great dancer, and reminded me so much of C at that age, the point at which we knew he would be a dancer.

4.  How delighted my neighbor Carol was when she won one of the raffle prizes, especially fun for her as she couldn’t afford a ticket and has no idea who  bought one and put her name on it.

5.  Paul and Kate singing “Crossing Muddy Waters”

6.  Looking up at around dusk- the band was doing a great set and had the whole place rocking, I noticed a group of adults and kids hooping or attempting to, I saw neighbors meeting each other and having fun together, and I felt so in love with my neighborhood.

7.  Of course, Rebecca’s fire hooping which always mesmerizes a crowd.

8.  That black bean burger from Smoketown USA!

And Sierra

Someone from the Ellen show happened to catch one of Seirra's youtubes and called to say they wanted her to come be on the show. I dont have a video of that, but she did a great job of teaching Ellen a thing or two about hooping!

My neighbor Rebecca

Sadly, no great video of Rebecca hooping with fire, but this one shows how beautiful the dancing is.

Good-bye old friends

I haven't watched Guiding Light in years, but as it ended today I had to feel a little sad. I was raised on Guiding Light. Secret Storm, The Edge of Night, Search for Tomorrow........all of them. Some of my earliest memories are of watching "the stories" with my mother. Rarely a family get together that we didn't speculate around the table about what would happen next with our favorite characters. Even in my 20's when I got my first VCR, I was most excited to be able to tape 3 hours of soaps and watch them all in about an hour each evening. I totally stopped about that time, and pretty much figured I would never watch them again, especially since we made a conscious choice to give up tv 15 years ago. Sometime last year a co-worker showed me how you can watch whole episodes of the soaps online and I thought i would check my old favorite As the World Turns to see who that i knew was still on there. Hooked. Been watching it seveal times a week online since. I love the escape of it all, the world where everyone who dies comes back and someone always has amnesia. I love that they anchor me to the most carefree years of my life. Some of my favorite actors on the soaps have gone on to become bigger stars- Christopher Reeve, Meg Ryan, Kevin Bacon, Meredith Baxter. I realize that the target audience for these daytime dramas no longer exists- women who were home all day needing a break from their chores and their mundane lives. Where else but a soap would you see a scene like this?! Good bye Guiding Light.

Loving this

Birds on the Wires from Jarbas Agnelli on Vimeo.

And tomorrow and in the days to come, I’ll look with new eyes (and ears) when there are birds on the wires.

Wednesday Link Love

A big shout out for the folks at Magnolia Photo Booth who generously provided their booth for free for the Louisville AIDS Walk this weekend.  Head over to their spot and select the option to see the proofs.  No one needs to know how much time I have spent looking at other people’s pictures, but if you have any curiosity whatsoever, do look.  The pictures taken at Four Courts are so dear they make me want to cry.  Look at them!  And then the Pugapalooza picnic pictures! So daggone cute.  Especially after looking at the Four Courts pictures, I have thought so much about all the fun places you could take a booth and really really make memories.  Even at the AIDS walk I saw moms and kids who I know don’t have one single picture in their wallets be able to take family pictures. 

You just have to look at this adorable piece of needle work.  Be sure to click on the arrows to the right of the picture to see pictures of the whole project. 

I spend so much time looking at her recipes that I forget that the Pioneer Woman is also an amazing photographer.  I especially like it when Charlie is her subject.

I love packages in the mail.  I love cupcakes.  I love sending packages in the mail to college kids.  And I even have some of the small jars!  Gotta give this a try.

And because it’s been at least a couple of weeks since I mentioned Cake Wreck….

And this post made me laugh out loud…..

My youngest heir

You may not be able to leave your children a great inheritance, but day by day you may be weaving coats for them which they will wear for eternity.       Theodore Coyler

Music Monday

8 Things

8 Things that made me smile this week

1.  S told me this story when she was home last weekend.  She and some girls from the dorm had decided to go to the laundromat in town (a very small town I might add!).  While they were doing their laundry, an elderly woman came into the laundromat, gave each of the girls 3 quarters, told them to do well in school, and left.  How sweet is that?

2.  I got to meet a blogger friend in real life!  I’ve often wondered when at the Farmer’s Market if any of the pretty y0ung women there might be Allison of Field Wonderful but this week through a coincidence one of the vendors asked me how to handle a gift certificate and it was hers and there she was! 

3.  C called and we talked for a very long time.  (Ah, the happiness of cell phone family plans!)   I loved hearing every single detail about his classes, his work,  his new friends he’s hanging with, and especially that he’s dancing again. 

4.  I got a facebook message from my nephew from college.  Sounds small, but moms of boys who are off at college know that boys can be a bit frugal with their family communications, so it was quite an honor to get a message from my nephew and I’ve been so proud and excited about some student government things he has gotten involved in.

5.  I got a fire bowl!!!  I’ve wanted one a long time, and a year ago even prepared a place for one, but it just never found its way to my house.  Last week I was able to snag one on an end of season clearance.   Now I’m waiting for a cool evening to  give it a spin!

6.  I have 15o long stemmed red roses in my living room.  I picked them up today for the Louisville AIDS Walk tomorrow.  How fun to have big vats of roses in the house!

7.  I discovered hulu.  We haven’t had tv in years, but when I am away from home I dooooo love some HGTV!  So I can watch some house flipping while I’m working on my granny squares.

8.  An absolutely perfect Saturday so far.  I had to be out early this morning to run some errands and loved every minute.  I’ve enjoyed being at home- about to clean out a closet and make a pot of chili before I head to the Urban Goatwalker tonight.

You DO NOT Want To Know

How long I have fooled with this daggone blog re-do tonight, and I still am totallly bumfuzzled about how to put a different header on.  Ackkkkkkkkk

Wednesday Link Love

This was a big hit at our house- and we found the recipe here…

I’d like to stitch a little picture of my urbanlittlehouse….

Did we really need such an easy access to key lime pie?

This would be fun for Halloween.   Or for a teen party.  Or for me to just have.  I’ve always loved things that glow in the dark.

Here’s a fun little idea, with or without hair clips….

Here’s a fun little free printable…..

Maybe I could mix up a pitcher of this to go with the key lime pies!

Music Monday

I’ve watched this a million times and enjoy it every time!!

Edit, Add, Appreciate

Edit- The only thing that could have made this weekend more perfect would be if C had been here this weekend, but alas the poor boy has classes on Labor Day!

Add- When I asked S what things she really wanted to do or people she really wanted to see on her first weekend home from college, she quickly said that she wanted to spend some time with Amos and Lydia, two little ones she babysits for and is very very close to. So, on Saturday night we had their family over for dinner.

If you don’t know us, you might not know that for about 13 years we have been sharing evening meals with a group of 20+ folks. When it’s our turn to host, we cook a giant meal and set up tables and chairs everywhere and welcome our large extended family home for dinner. Folks bring their own dishes and silverware so that the host for the night only has the dinner prep dishes to do, so each family has a dinner bag that we keep hanging at the door ready to head out. So we do have folks over for dinner, lots of them, but I realized on Saturday how much fun it was to cook and prepare for a meal and set the table and invite folks outside of that regular circle. When my son’s best friend showed up, he slipped into a seat and gave us a nice round 10 which allows for a whole lot more visiting with everyone than with 20. Sooooooooo my goal now is to invite folks to dinner more often- folks we may have never spent time with or not near enough. We’ll see….

Appreicate- The center of my universe is my front porch. I am never happier than when I’ve got porch guests and kids running in the front yard. The kids had already left the table and gone outside Saturday night and the adults were still dallying when one of the kids ran in saying we HAD to come out to see the moon. We ran out and it was indeed as gorgeous as the picture above, and we began beckoning neighbors to join us. If you felt the whole east end of downtown tilt a bit, it was because a crowd of us rushed to one spot to oooohhhhh and ahhhhh over the moon and talk about waxing moons and waning moons and the names of the different full moons. Then we broke off into clusters, and moved from one cluster to another- trying out the zero gravity chair in the back yard, sitting on the glider on the front porch talking about healthcare reform, the best ethnic food restaurants and about Dave’s refurbished antique cider press that will get it’s first run on Labor Day. Neighbors and dogs stopped to visit, kids ripped and ran with my teen girls chasing them, my stand- in son told me stuff about college. Who could ask for more?!

8 Things

8 Things that Sap Away My Time

1.  Uh, yeah, sort of obvious……..internet stuff.  At least my continual surfing now has some end product on Wednesday Link Love but you can’t imagine how much time I spend surfing, all of it at the cost of my bedtime.

2.  Reading recipes- They catch me every time.  From time to time someone in my house will ask for an old favorite and I’m struck with how much “testing” I do on them when they really like some old standbys more.  But wait….this could become an old standby if it’s a hit!

3.  Looking at other people’s art, handmade items, and scrapbooks- Because really, who am I kidding?  I use all my time looking and then feel I can’t measure up.  The very chair I am sitting in, swiveled 90 degrees would be facing an art project.  My supplies are plentiful and organized and calling to me.  I’d just have to turn away from the computer.

4.  Trying to figure out what to do next.  It’s the biggest curse of menopause, far greater than hot flashes, that I can no longer order my thoughts.  I can make lists, but get stymied at where to begin.

5.  Reading about other people’s spiritual practices.  See #3.

6.  facebook-  Let me say that I continue to say that it is hugely beneficial to me in helping me stay connected to the larger world.  I just have to remember that I also have friends right outside my door who I could be connecting with face to face.

7.  Laundry- but what’s the alternative?

8- Trying to keep an old white vinyl floor even halfway decent looking.  Of note, this floor is in the center of my house which is a shotgun house, so every trip to anywhere in my house involves a trip across that floor.  And I have two dogs.  And it’s so old that the protective covering of whatever it was is gone. 

Grace Upon Grace

I don't know Camp, but I wish I did. I love this song and in the process of searching for it stumbled upon this sweet girl. Just look how earnest she is, holding her little arms so stiff at her sides and she never misses a word or gets out of tune. Love it! (and it's a great song!)

Wednesday Link Love

I’m cutting my teeth on these, because I REALLY REALLY want to make one of these. There are pages and pages of them- check them out.

My office could definitely use a little pick me up after seeing these!

When I was a child my mother bought a plastic “playhouse” that fit over a card table and I still think of that. It was ALMOST as cool as the one she made me out of the box the deacons bench came in. So you know these call out to me, but most of all I love that mail bag and the little felt letters!!

I doubt I’ll ever give a Super Mario party, but how cool is the picture display of the baby over the first year of his life?

And I’m loving this alphabet!

Ackkkkkkkkkk I love these! I really love these!

Check out the platter!! Now to find my glue gun.

And finally, this tender sweet tale from Antique Mommy.

Waiting….

For my real life to begin…….I meant to add this to my Music Monday post. When I heard this song this week I dropped into a chute and opened my eyes to my 30 year old self, waiting for her real life to begin. By the grace of God, within a few years I figured out that in fact it had, and it has been a deep luxury to fall on into my real life. Yesterday I was paying attention to a quote I have on my office wall- “Who, being loved, is poor?” , said Oscar Wilde. Grateful today that I am rich beyond measure in my real life.

Music Monday