Two Different Weeks and Two Different Walks

 Last week I was in Florida for a brief visit with my parents. I enjoyed several morning walks, although warmer than Indiana, the temperature was near freezing one morning and I had to bundle up and borrow a hat and gloves from mom. Meanwhile back in Indiana it was way below freezing, lows in the single digits, too cold to go out and walk. I returned to Indiana and we had a snowstorm and now have about nine inches of snow on the ground, making my morning walk very pretty and a little more challenging.

I always enjoy seeing Donkey on my Florida walks.

The donkey hangs out with the cattle and the horse to scare away coyotes.

The trees were absolutely loaded with oranges and looked so pretty.

A beautiful morning that soon warmed up into a pleasant day.

Bundled up in Florida!

Back to Indiana, eighteen degrees and windy, but bundled in layers it is easy to keep warm.

I enjoy this tree in every season.

I did not venture down the trail as the entrance was blocked with piles of snow from the snow plow.

Snow makes everything look peaceful and beautiful.

The snow eventually ended, I think around nine or ten inches fell, it sure looks pretty.

The Joys Of Paper Piecing

 In December we were assigned a block of the month quilt block put together using a method called Paper Piecing. Wow what a learning curve! My 9th attempt came out correctly and I followed it up with a correct 10th block. This project was so much fun and slowly but surely I figured out what I needed to change and each attempt got closer and closer to being correct, and finally I did it. I was really, really satisfied to have mastered (I say that lightly) how to piece the block to end up with the correct size.

This is one of the reasons I like the Quilt Guild, you are never too young to learn new tricks. It is always very tempting to go for the easy option block pattern, but much more satisfying to complete a challenging block pattern. 

I am now getting ready to start on the January block of the month and hopefully it should be fairly straight forward and not take ten attempts to get right! 

Squaring up the paper pieced blocks

Success at last, all points meet and there is adequate seam allowance to attach a border or another block. I ran out of the rainbow fabric, but I think I picked it up at Walmart so hopefully can find a fat quarter to make the last two corners of the 12 inch block. I plan to make this into a cover for a throw pillow and will give it to our granddaughter Alivia.

Four block of the month blocks finished, I will begin work on January's block very soon.

This block I ran up just for fun, I always liked this block pattern and decided to try it out, it was challenging but I turned out well for a first attempt. I am going to make this into a cover for a throw pillow for our granddaughter Aubrey.

Today our grandson Masen was over as he is on quarantine from school at the moment. It snowed most of the day so we made cookies.

I Am Loving Quilt Guild

 This past fall when school resumed I suddenly ended up with a couple of free days each week. Initially I took care of some projects around the house but then realized I needed an activity or two to keep me busy. My mom belongs to a Quilt Guild and really enjoys it and I wondered if there was a guild near me. I googled and voila there are two! I contacted the one closest to me and almost immediately received a reply inviting me to the next meeting. So on a very foggy morning in October I headed off to my very first meeting with The Spinning Spools. I enjoyed the meeting, paid my dues, submitted my information and picture for the directory, it turns out that October is the month all of this takes place, and I am a full fledged member.

The meeting starts at ten but there is a forty-five minute gathering time beforehand that is enjoyable and gives everyone time to chit chat and get to know one another. At ten the meeting is called to order, items are discussed, approved (almost always), and the meeting is closed by eleven. Next up is a demonstration, put on by a member, of a specific quilting technique, or tips and tricks for new quilters, or how to use various quilting aides, all good stuff. Then we are given the block of the month pattern, this is great, I tend to avoid certain block types because they are difficult, now I have a challenge and an opportunity to learn better technique. The blocks made the prior month are put on display, it is interesting to see as everyone uses colors of their choice and the results are very pretty. The last part of the gathering is Show and Tell, and I the items shown are quite inspiring, there are some very talented quilters in the guild.

In December we had our Christmas party after the meeting, it was fun with a catered box lunch, a fun gift exchange and good company, I had a wonderful time. I am so thankful I found this group, they are so friendly, so welcoming and so nice.

"Our Choice" block of the month

I love seeing the color choices for the block of the month

It was a small turnout this month and the block is paper pieced and challenging to make. Only four brave souls had a finished block to display. I did not get mine made in time for our meeting, but I am working on it now.

Do We Ever Love A Salad Bar

 My husband and I really enjoy salad bars! It is a great dining out option for us as Dave is not Vegan, I am, and we both love a salad bar and it caters to both our tastes.  We do not go out to eat very often, and when we do we usually go to our local Pizza Hut as they have a decent salad bar. A nice salad and a glass wine makes for a pleasant outing. Unfortunately on a recent trip to Pizza Hut we found that the cost had increased significantly and there were fewer choices available on the salad bar, it was disappointing. We were pretty shocked at the cost of our salad and will probably not go again.

Instead we decided to do our own salad bar at home. In last weeks grocery order I got a Romaine salad mix, cucumber, tomatoes, purple onion, frozen peas, chick peas, pickled beets, roasted pumpkin seeds (most stores now call them Pepitas), and croutons for Dave. We had pickled banana peppers, green and kalamata olives, and eggs as Dave enjoys hard boiled egg on his salad. I prepped everything and set out our "salad bar" and we were all set. And a day or two later we enjoyed our salad bar again. And it was a delicious, yummy meal at a fraction of the cost of eating out. 

I made some soup to go with my salad. It is a simple soup to make, a couple of quarts of water, a quart of veggie broth, throw in some veggies, I added onion, sweet potato, cauliflower, purple cabbage, kale, collard greens, mushrooms and garlic. Added a heaping teaspoonful of ginger and tumeric and a shake of salt and let it cook. I used an immersion blender to puree it a bit. It was delicious with a nice sprinkling of nutritional yeast on top. Between the soup and salad I was pretty well fed for the entire day! 

Some New Activities

 This past fall our life changed in a nice way, my husband retired. Our new life together is relaxing, slow paced, and enjoyable. I have more free time as all the grandchildren go to school full time with the exception of one who stays home with his mom and another who comes to hang out with us each Friday. I still work two days a week but now have two days a week to myself. Some of our grandsons are picked up and dropped off by the school bus at our house, but for the most part Monday and Wednesday we have time to ourselves. 

I felt a need to connect with others, and have an activity or two away from the house. I like to quilt and my mom belongs to a quilt guild so I looked to see if there was one close to me. I was pleased to find one in Auburn, Indiana, a twenty minute drive away from home. The guild meets on the second Wednesday of each month, I have attended since October and paid my dues, $20, and am a member. I enjoy the guild, it is a small group of older ladies who enjoy quilting, we are assigned a block of the month project which is enjoyable and can be challenging. We have show and tell, and let me tell you the guild ladies are talented and creative and make the most beautiful quilts and wall hangings, it is very inspiring. If you like to quilt I cannot think of a better group to join than a local quilt guild, you will learn lots of new things and meet super nice people.

I used to belong to a book club, it had six to eight members, we each took a turn hosting by inviting everyone to our home, making dinner and enjoying each others company, talking about the book. At that time we all had school age children, full time work, and all the busyness that comes with that stage of life. We kept going for several years but eventually it just fizzled out. I missed book club but could never get anyone interested in doing another one until this past fall. I put out an invite on Facebook and my good friend of many, many years said she would love to do book club again. And a former co-worker, now retired, and still coping with the sudden death of his wife eighteen months ago also wanted to join. My friend invited another friend and now we have a book club of four. We meet every single month at a restaurant and we are entering our fifth month, it has worked out really well. I look forward to our book club night, and I have to say our little group has gelled nicely and we have lively discussions and a good time. Our first book was The Keeper of Lost Things and we met at Cheddars, and it was a little awkward, as we all kind of introduced ourselves and settled in. Our next book was Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi and we met at a Turkish restaurant, this meeting was much better as we were now acquainted and knew each other a bit. We then read The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides and met at a Bistro. This month we read And The Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini and met at The Trolley Bar. We are now reading Territory Of Light by Yuko Tsushima and we will be meeting at a locally owned Asian restaurant. Now when we meet it is joyous, we all know each other, and the conversation flows. If you pick the book you pick the restaurant, it works out really well and I am always able to find something vegan to eat.

I did try a yoga class, it was classified as restorative yoga and was very relaxing. I quite enjoyed it until we had to start doing partners yoga. Partners yoga might have been a little easier if perhaps the instructor allowed for some social time at the start for everyone to introduce themselves so we could get to know each other. However, the fifteen minutes of "social time" mainly involved the instructor talking incessantly about her own life with no opening for anyone else, it was odd. The class only had about ten students so it would have been nice to have a sort of circle time of sharing before we started. Anyway, on the sixth week partners yoga was introduced, I had to sit back to back with a lady I didn't know and get our breathing in sync. Then we had to take turns to massage the other persons shoulders etc. it was way, way too much touchy feely for me with someone whose name I didn't even know! Needless to say that was the last time I attended. 

My husband has enjoyed not having to go to work, he had a hard physically challenging job and he was coming home totally exhausted and I was worried he would die at work. Retirement has done him a world of good, he is no longer totally exhausted, no longer stressed, enjoys doing little projects around the house and most importantly he is happy. Dave is back to baking bread, he makes a batch every week. He enjoys making snacks for the grandsons when they get home from school. He goes to pick up grandsons who have to stay after school for various clubs and activities, and likes his slower pace of life. And has rediscovered the joy of cooking. Dave is not vegan, so he makes his food, and I make mine.

Mr. Retiree

So here we are, suddenly in retirement  It seems like we just sped through the tunnel of life, getting married, we just celebrated our 38th anniversary, having children, raising the children, going to children's weddings, welcoming the grandchildren, helping with the grandchildren, working, all the things that make up a busy life, and then whamo blamo you reach retirement age that time that always seemed impossibly far off in the future. It leaves you with a  kind of dazed and confused feeling and a need to figure out new structure to the days. It is a time to embrace hobbies, and, not to sound too corny, to live, laugh, love for life is short and time flies by.

Peace and all goodwill,

Bean

Fall Break 2021

 Our grandsons had fall break from school giving them a nice four day weekend. On Friday the boys were over for the day, the weather forecast called for rain all day, so what could we do that would be fun but keep us dry. I spent a little time on Google first thing in the morning and came up with a plan.  We headed for downtown Fort Wayne and paid a visit to the Firefighters Museum and then headed next door to the main branch of the Allen County Library, a favorite place all the boys like to visit. We wandered around the library, unfortunately due to Covid restrictions the play room and a few other child friendly attractions are still not allowed, but they looked at the giant globe and we rode up and down elevators and went up and down stairs and picked out a few movies to borrow. Next up was lunch, we drove to Fort Wayne's famous Coney Island, in business, in the same location since 1907. The boys all had hotdogs, a bag of potato chips and the favorite small glass bottle of Coca Cola with a straw. When we left we went out the back door, you get to walk through a very small kitchen area with a giant vat of chili cooking and always a man washing dishes. 

On Monday the weather was perfect, a chilly start to the day but abundant sunshine and a high expected in the low sixties. Everyone piled into the van at nine and we got on the highway to drive about for about an hour to Pokagon State Park near Angola, Indiana. We arrived at the park, parked at the Potawatami Inn and headed to hiking trail. Our goal was to walk to Hell's Point, the highest point in the park, and I believe in Steuben county. We ambled along, the best pace to go when the youngest walker is only four, and enjoyed a truly glorious morning. After a while we reached Hell's Point and they all enjoyed a snack of trail mix, we then descended, there are 84 steps to go down and this was a cause of great excitement. On we continued and then took another trail to walk up to Blue Bird Hill, such a pretty, tranquil spot in the park as the trail is not a main loop through the woods. Then it was time to head back to the van, and head home for a late lunch, their favorite rigatoni and bread and butter.

I really enjoy our day trips out, probably more so than the kids, it is a good excuse to get out and about and the boys are always good company.

A Little Project for a Little Guy

This past June Dave and I drove to Florida to visit with my parents. While there my mom had a clear out of all the leftover yarn from her many, many knitting projects and sent a trash bag full of yarn home with me. There were several skeins of light blue yarn and I thought it would make a lovely sweater for our youngest grandson Harrison. I had the sweater knitted and only had to finish the neck, I went off to get my size 5 circular knitting needles and could find them no where, I found a packet for them, so know I owned a pair at some point in time. I had circular knitting needles in many sizes, but no size 5, I thought perhaps double pointed needles would work, but needed five and only had four. Dreading a trip to JoAnne Fabrics, I decided to order the needles online. So, Sunday evening I placed my order on Amazon, and by lunchtime Monday the needles arrived, amazingly quick delivery. I finished up the sweater on Monday evening and was able to give it to Harrison on Tuesday evening at our oldest grandsons football game. I think Harrison looks adorable in his blue sweater, now we need some cooler weather so he can wear it without feeling like a boiled lobster.

Henry is #31, center of the picture

Yesterday, when Patrick and Charles arrived home from school Charles helped mix up a batch of chocolate chip cookies. I put a batch of cookies in the oven to bake and ran out to check the mailbox, when I returned to the kitchen I was amused to find Charles waiting patiently in front of the oven. The boys really enjoyed their afternoon snack.