Kennedy Honors

I'm not big on watching award shows. But last night I watched the Kennedy Center Honors. I was awe struck. What an enormous amount of talent. It reminded me of being little when dreams were limitless, and watching with my parents, brothers and sister in the family room on 33 Dover. I was moved to tears and couldn't help thinking about all the young people, (mine included), performing their hearts out on smaller stages across the world. I am so thankful to the Kennedy family for reminding us of how important the performing arts are to our world. What an amazing race this human race is.

Snowed in

We just spent 4 days unable to get the car out because of the drifts. I baked bread

And then yesterday I took a walk in the woods

There's quite a drop off behind our house

The rock wall is our property line

Could be a fairy hideout.....

Today I'm taking the car out. We managed to knock down a path in our driveway.....wish me luck!

Post it notes for our

Post it notes for our office Christmas tree.

Should I rethink this?

I had this wonderful idea....make a quilt, recycle the fabric from used clothing, do all the sewing by hand. Hmmmm.....I might have bit off more than I can chew.

Snowflakes

http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=71377
Dec 05 09 018, originally uploaded by ljpj1979.

This is why I always try to have my camera in my purse. You never know when an impromptu snowflake lesson will come up.

David's day

I couldn't find any yellow roses for him anywhere. I had to settle for these.

Sofa photo collection

Apparently I'm beginning a collection of abandoned sofas. This one is on the side of the road next to the bridge over the river. I'm speechless......

I hate it when I

I hate it when I find myself in this situation. I always thought "find a penny pick it up all day long you'll have good luck". But then once I started to pick one up in front of Greg and he stopped me because it was tails up. Ever since I've had a delima. But today I picked it up. Hey, money's money. We'll just have to wait and see about the luck.

Thanksgivings

This is my last day of vacation. Early on in my time off I had a huge disappointment that made me so sad. I had to constantly fight back tears and remind myself to enjoy my break.

But on Thanksgiving it wasn't hard at all. All day long I could look into the gorgeous faces of my husband, my children, the people they share their lives with, and my grandchild and remember how blessed and thankful I am.

I am thankful for all of those memorable moments in my life, moments such as this from the wedding a year ago. How lucky we are that someone captured it for us! And lucky I just stumbled across it.

And I am thankful for these last eleven days spent at home, enjoying my family, days spent doing all the things I love to do. Time, health, and family are what I'm most thankful for.

Feast preparation

It's the little things that amuse me. ...like peeling two entire apples in a continuous strip. One cherry pie, one apple pie, and Tollhouse cookies already finished. Not a bad start. Later, turkey wrestling.

There's just something about birds

There's just something about birds in motion. I think it is one of the coolest things to see in nature. I saw these on my way to work this morning. I couldn't believe how loud they were when I got out of my car. I love their dance!

Third time is a charm

Third time is a charm right? I think I can now post from my phone. And the picture was taken on my walk Friday night and also taken with my phone. I am a sucker for being connected and for clover patches.

On my way to work

On my way to work this morning I saw this sofa on the side of the road. That's a freshly harvested field of beans in the background. Just when I was beginning to think I was living in a Jane Wooster Scott jigsaw puzzle.

I finally finished Jane Eyre. The illustrations were fabulous, the story wonderful, the language, tedious.

It took me a while.

Here are some pictures to

Here are some pictures to mark my weekend. Hali, Scott and I went with Ryane to watch her get her first tattoo. She got a jewel with sparkles on her wrist to stand for Jewell. The process was a little gruesome for me. The artist put plastic wrap over the top of it when she finished so I didn’t get a picture of the finished product.
I also took a picture of Greg’s altar to honor his anniversary on Sunday. I always buy that color of rose for him. Someone left a bunch of that color of roses on the road at the site of the accident. I have a dried rose from that bunch along with other pieces of trash the paramedics left behind.
And finally, I finished my sweater! It took more than six months. I'm very happy with how it turned out. Woohoo!

Daddy lets me fly!

http://youtube.com/v/qJGmJxDd35s

Sorry about the camera angle!

TGIF

Here are some pictures from the week:
This year's pumpkin, carved last night

Trick or treaters in the office

Halloween paper toys. I really wish Olivia was old enough for them .....

I wore the sweater I knitted on Wednesday.

Olivia's flashlight show

And more office.....the kid has a train track sewn to his sweat suit with trains attached. Awesome!

Mondays

Mondays aren't quite so terrible when you've had a great weekend. A perfect run, lunch and a museum exhibit with Ryane, time to work on art and knit, time to clean neglected corners of the house, time to stock the cupboards and try a new recipe for dinner, laundry and much needed sleep. I hope this feeling lasts.

And because I don't have a more recent photo, here is one of the bathmat I made a couple of weeks ago. I've been seeing painted river rocks on different blogs around the internet. So I decided to try it and put them together on a bathmat. Have a good week!

Super Hero

She did it! We have a super hero in the family. She even has the silver cape to prove it. 26.2 miles! AWESOME!

Lunch at the lake

This is the second Friday in a row Hali and I have taken our lunch out to the lake. The weather has been splendid! The water is so beautiful since they drained and filled it. We sit on the dock, eat, talk and laugh. Then we lean over the edge to watch the fish. The water is so clear. Today a dad and his son were fishing off the jetty next to us. It sure makes it hard to go back to the office.

Books and Doodles

Two days of meetings produces a page of doodles. And since I haven’t posted any pictures of them lately….

And now for the books portion of this post. I finished Ice Queen by Alice Hoffman the other night, certainly not one of her best. Now that the summer reading season is over I was thinking of what I enjoyed the most, definitely Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout. And if I had to pick a second, it would be Bel Canto by Ann Patchett, but a distant second. I think my problem might have been that I only read one non fiction book this summer. I went for a long period of time when I only read non fiction. Maybe I need to mix it up more. I started a book by Eduardo Galeano yesterday. I heard him interviewed on NPR the other day and found him very interesting. I’m reading Walking Words, Latin American folklore. I’m really enjoying it. But I need some book suggestions……