Kara J.

What's in a name...

Naming... it's a task not to be taken lightly.

Naming your baby.  A difficult task, at best.  We looked through the books.  We thought long and hard.  We struggled!  And our babies were named.  Those names, however, came when these babies were one day old and we were on our way out of the hospital.  Some were collaborations, one he named, one I named.  We never found out what we were having ahead of time so we never chose names ahead of time.  To me, that's like knowing what is inside your Christmas presents and not getting to play with it.

And what about the meanings of names???  What if you give your baby boy a name that means tall and strong, and he ends of short and scrawny like great-uncle so-and-so??

And is it possible to live up to the meanings of those names?  What if Joy is a cantankerous little girl?  My name means "beloved" and "creator" depending on the origin of it.  Am I those things?  I can hope.

Name a quilt.  How do you decide what to call a quilt???  A quilt that may be made of blocks that have been named since the beginning of time and maybe you added your own flair to them and came up with something beautiful.  What do you name it???  What if it's a Lone Star?  It is a block that has been around a long time.  What if you make that?  It's certainly no original, but the colors are all your choosing.  So what do you name it?  How do you decide?

Naming... whether a child or a pet or a quilt... it's a difficult task.

Salmon Fishing with the Kids...

I've been working on quilts and Christmas shopping on-line (almost done with this).  I'm also planning some other quilts - more on those later.  And that ends the quilting content, until a day that I have something to show...

Back to fishing...  Last month we took the kids to New York to go salmon fishing.  There was a 5 1/2 hour drive involved and was reasonably uneventful.  The kids did GREAT!  Just the occasional squabble, but easily remedied.  The oldest sat in the middle of the front of the truck and spent a lot of time doing this...

 

I never really saw how big salmon were until this trip.  I only saw the fillets that HandyMan would bring home.  The fillets were always big.  But the actual salmon...

 

The MonkeyButts each got to help catch...

If you look closely at the LittleMan, you'll see his pants are wet.  He didn't think the edge was as close as it was and it stepped down, and in he went.  He was a good sport about it, and fortunately it wasn't cold.

There are so many little stories from the two days we were there...  Like HandyMan having to carry all of us (and I mean ALL of us, including me) across the stream.  The LittleMan kept looking at us on his way across and yelling "I'm OK!"  Here's one of the MonkeyButts going across...

 

Watching HandyMan in his element...

 

...and sharing one of his passions with the children...

 

Catching the MonkeyButts being themselves...

 

The really neat old barn we saw...

 

I took LOTS of pictures of all the things I saw that I thought were interesting.  There were other things we got to see, too...

The Erie Canal...

A brick alley...

Lake Ontario...

 

We had a wonderful time.  We're thinking we need to go for a week.  We'll find a cabin, with a kitchen, spend a few days sight-seeing and go see Niagara Falls.  Then some days fishing.  We'll need a few more waders until then...  Then HandyMan won't have to carry ALL of us across the streams...  And I'll be able to get some really good pictures of the kids catching fish from out in the stream...

Had we asked them to rake....

First, let me start by saying that HandyMan has been laid-off for a month.  And we've been taking full advantage of him being home and doing stuff around the house and spending some good family time together.

The past few days have produced winds that blew down an abundance of leaves.  The back yard was blanketed in red, brown, and gold.  

Yesterday, the kids grabbed the rakes and started raking up a pile of leaves to play in.  They used a large bin to help transport all the leaves from every area of the yard to the pile.  

They raked and raked and raked....

This is the result...  A large pile of leaves...

Then the fun began!!

 

 

Eventually I put down the camera and joined in the fun, too.  We grabbed the kids by the wrists and ankles and threw them in.

We stuffed their shirts to make them look like scarecrows.

We covered them up.  We threw them in.  They threw leaves at us, and we threw leaves at them.

When the fun was done, we moved the pile, wheelbarrow full and bin full at a time, to the edge of the field.  HandyMan and I are hoping the next wind blows them into the field.  

The kids are waiting for the next wind to blow more leaves down.

We came inside and brushed out hair and shook out clothes and had a small pile of leaves to sweep out of the house.

Had we asked them to do this much work, we would have been greeted by grumbling and resistance.  But they played and had a great time.  And most of the leaves are out of the yard...

10 Years Old...

Yesterday, we had a birthday in our house.  Younger DD turned 10.

I spent the day before making cupcakes.  Her request.  White cupcakes with orange filling and lemon icing.  The lemon icing was tart... very tart.  

For those who weren't so adventurous, I made a spice cake.

My mom and stepfather, and MIL came to enjoy cake.

My husband found these cute candles, too.  And it took her about 3 breaths to get those candles out.

 

 

Happy Birthday, Sweety...

The past year...

A year ago, after starting to create patterns and hoping to be creative and share my quilting, I landed in the hospital with a heart condition.  Voices of everyone echoing through my head of "You're too young for that."  And my reply, "Yea, I know."  I'm in my mid-thirties (*cringe* - feel like I"m in my mid-twenties).

It became a dark time for me.  Exhaustion from meds and the condition.  General exhaustion from parenting and children and being a wife.  Working a part-time job.  Having (sometimes painful) tests.  Waiting for surgeries.

Anxiety.  Depression.

Then, after surgery, a new lease on life.  I have been feeling wonderful.  I'm on one cardiac med instead of 3.  Life is back to being what life was before the last year happened.

I am trying to see life through new eyes.  I'm trying not to take anything for granted.  Watching the joy of the children playing in the fallen leaves.  Enjoying my quilting.  Loving my friends and family.  

 

Yesterday, after a week of cool temperatures, snowy rain, and frost; I noticed a single miniature rose on a mostly bare bush.

 

And blue jays feeding this morning.

 

And watching the cat who thought those birds would have made good playmates.  (The silly cat wouldn't know what to do if she got outside.)

 

I'm finding joy and happiness in the everyday things.

This past year, although not one of my shining moments, has also taught me a lot about my own strength.  And showed me the things I'm willing to fight for.  It's been trying at times.  And there are still times ahead.  But everything will be fine.  One way or another, it will be fine.

Day at the Mill...

Our local state park has a wonderful attraction.  An old water mill.

 

Today, amidst rain and dreariness, was the Apple Fest.  And in the mill, they were using the power of the wheel to make apple cider on the first floor...  

 

And corn meal on the second floor...

 

We were shown the small box used to give the miller his share of every bushel of corn ground as payment since the farmers wouldn't be able to pay in money.

There was also a flour sifter running.  We were shown how the clutch mechanisms worked so that any piece of equipment could be taken "off-line".

Here's some of the old mill stones...

 

And the shaft and gears coming in from the wheel...

 

The third and fourth floors are off limits to visitors.  Very steep steps run up and down the center of mill, and park officers use those, but visitors must go around the building to go from level to level.  And the park officers answered questions from the kids as well as HandyMan (who had NEVER been inside the mill before).  We watched gears and belts and raw power move large stones.

We saw the original bill of sale for the wheel (31' diameter) and several other parts in the mill - a grand total of $925.  Old bags from old mills.  Old equipment used in the mill in days gone by.

Outside in the rain, there were two large kettles of apple butter boiling.  We dropped off our quart jars and have some wonderful homemade apple butter to eat.  Next step, homemade bread to eat with it...

Time spent in the cool, rainy day made for some cold fingers and noses.  When we came home, I made some homemade hot cocoa.  The perfect end to a good trip...

 

Dreaming of a white winter...

For too many years, the winters have been cold, bleak, and almost snowless.  The last significant snow fall came in 2002 and fell over Christmas Eve into Christmas Day.  It cancelled our plans of family and getting together and eating until we were stuffed.  But my husband and I took the kids outside and played in the falling snow until our noses were red and our fingers and toes were numb from cold.  Then we went inside, warmed up, dried our clothes on the old-fashioned radiators, and went back out and did it again.  It was GREAT!!!  The kids were little and the older ones don't really remember.  The "baby" has never seen snow like that.

But this year...  with the first, sloppy, sleet-like flakes falling today in the middle of October (although they are too wet and melt when they hit the ground), I'm hopeful.

Hoping that this year is the year.  The year of a White Thanksgiving like I experienced as a child.  The year of a White Christmas like I experienced as a child.

This year...  I'm dreaming of white, with funny-looking snowmen and snow angels.  Children with little red faces.  Snowy boots and snowpants.  Snowball fights.  Homemade hot cocoa.  Fire in the wood stove.  Children content from a day of play in the snow.

I'm dreaming of a white winter...

Promise of a New Day...

I love that fresh, new feeling of a brand new day.  The sun peeking up over the horizon.  The stillness of the morning.  The promise of everything that can fill the day and make it wonderful.

I spent the new morning hours at the quilting hoop.  Listening to music.  Quietly stitching away until the  brood woke from their slumber.

Hopes of homemade bread and more quilting are the expectations for the day.  I know reality may be different, but for now... there is hope for wonderfulness. 

Fill your day with wonderfulness.

Baking Bread...

There are moments when I'm a domestic diva.  I'm more productive than I've ever been.  

The other day...  I made cinnamon swirl bread.

And I would have shared pics earlier, but we were too busy eating this yummy bread.

Now, I need to make some more!

We don't have heat on in our house yet.  So I came up with "plan b" for the bread to rise.  Pre-heat your oven for about a minute, no more.  The oven becomes a warm, draft-free place for bread to rise.  This also keeps the prying eyes and fingers of little people away from it.  Puffy bread dough is fun to play with, afterall....

I'm also working on several quilting projects.  And helping hubby with projects around the house.  We are spending TONS of time together since he's been laid-off.  And we're getting lots of stuff done here.

Maybe tomorrow, I'll make more bread... 

No More Training Wheels...

It's official, and kind of sad really...  No babies live here anymore.

Yesterday afternoon, the training wheels came off.  And he's riding like he's been doing it all summer.  He still tumbles and had a run-in with the miniature rose bush (only one little scrape on his finger).

But he's a big boy.  Next year, he'll have his brother's bike.  His brother will have a bigger bike, too.

No babies live here anymore...