That Was Quick - Sweet and Savory Bows.

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For all my boo-hooing yesterday, Flock went and got the huge job done in only a couple of days. Maybe they were giving all of us addicts a worst-case scenario so we'd be even more grateful for this browser when it was fixed.

Anyhow, I'll play a little catch-up.

The day after the flood we were having a movie night here so Michael and I worked to confine the chaos to the sun room.





All the Betty Lukens flannel boards had gotten wet, so we set them out to dry during the day.





I love these things. A leftover joy of childhood that I love sharing with children.









Of course, we played with them as we worked.





So the front room was cleared.





And the family room was filled with any sort of seating we could drag in.





And we watched... what did we watch, anyway? The perks about forgetfulness with movies is that you can watch the again and again!

It's coming back to me now. Alice in Wonderland. Everybody get enough popcorn? There seems to be a little competition going in in this photo.





We were also very happy to share our first harvest of blackberries. We had a band of pickers come on over and it was done in short order. 3 days later, it took Michael and me three hours to pick 5 gallons. We froze most of them.

With the drought, the grasshoppers went through my garden. They are all over the place, a few got in the house, they are on the screens. Just look at what they did to our Swiss chard. Happily, the rains have brought green back to the landscape and they should be kept busier and away from the garden.





A little archery to top off blackberry picking. Of course more time is spent searching for arrows than actually sending them through the air.





Michael and I made this recipe up. The goal? Eliminating leftovers. We judged it to be very tasty.





SWEET AND SAVORY BOW TIES

Standard bowtie pasta, cooked al dente
Fresh blackberries
Milk syrup
Parmesan cheese

Here is the recipe for the syrup.

Get a very large pot, as this bubbles up a lot. Turn heat to medium. Place inside of pot in this order:

1 cube butter
3/4 cup milk or buttermilk
2 TBL corn syrup
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 tsp baking soda

Stir and bring to a boil. Simmer for 7 minutes and remove from heat. Stir in:

2 tsp vanilla

That's the syrup recipe. Mix the berries in some syrup and cook down, spoon over pasta, and top with the Parmesan cheese. Surprisingly yummy!

We went off on another blueberry jaunt.





This time the berries were more numerous





and sweet.





And we could not resist the grand opening of the new Dunkin Donuts. Small town adventuring at its best.





I'd only been to one once as a child. I sampled a plain bagel, and Michael had a Bavarian cream doughnut - one of our very most favoritestest treats.





Good rest, chatting, and the young people never seem to be without a deck of cards. Challenging the notion that poker is, in and of itself, evil.





A visit with my folks.





Led me off to a simple macro wonderland.









They want to know if this is a poisonous tree. They were told it was some sort of wild cherry. Anyone know?









I got to steal one of my 'daughters' to go shopping.





We got Seth a dog tag.





Then we took off for a Pampered Chef bridal shower.

I was the only one who does not own a single piece of Pampered Chef ware. That stuff is quality; another word for expensive. Call me the WalMart Budget Girl, but what a lovely way to outfit your kitchen!

Gorgeous and delicious cake, made by my too-long-between-visits friend, Pam. She needs to open a bakery. Really. Seriously.





Pam, and the bride to be, wearing an apron made by another of my 'daughters'. She needs to sell these beauties.





Where do guys go when girls are at showers?









Swimming, and....

More archery.





I think we'll be shopping for more arrows soon.

~Faith

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A Weekend of Celebrations!

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We had our home school graduation celebration on Saturday, and a bridal shower on Sunday. So it was filled with good times with friends.

Our home school group has about 60 families and is very active. It has been a wonderful thing in our lives. Even though Michael is not a graduate of either the high school or middle school groups, there was no way we were going to miss joining in the celebration!





A really wonderful message was given by the already graduated son of some dear friends of ours.





And live music was part of the service as well.









Afterwards we went to a party for one of the graduates who is very special to our hearts. We used our lazy sabbath Saturday to make her a card while we kicked back and watched a movie. I am not into scrapbooking - too smart to get into something that I know good and well would be addictive LOL - but those little decorations are perfect for making cards.





I took an image from the internet and faded it out, then printed it up for the inside of the card. We really had a good time making it and it was nice to make it more personal.





At the party, where we ate, chatted, and played Guesstures and Taboo, I asked if there was anything I could do to help the next day at the bridal shower and my friend, who was planning it, asked if I could come up with some games.





Well, I love games, so I spent some time on the internet and found a few.

One that is not really a game, but close, and very helpful to the bride-to-be, is to buy thank you cards for the bride. Hand out the envelopes to each party-attender and have them address the envelopes. These are put into a drawing, and the winner gets a prize. In this case a quick-start basil planting kit. The envelopes and cards are then presented to the bride so that she will not have to find addresses as she is already swamped with things to do planning for the wedding. Nifty, huh?

Turned out a friend and I wore the same shoes.





In this game you hand out pens, hardback books, and paper. You have everyone sign the bottom right corner without telling them why. Then you announce that as a gift to the bride they will all draw a picture of how beautiful she will look on her wedding day.

As the groans begin to grow, put the book and paper on your head and demonstrate that this is how it will be done. They enjoyed this and the bride got some silly mementos.





Played a game where you sat everyone in a circle, put a few gifts out amongst them, and read a wedding story that had a lot of "right" and "left" throughout. Each time the words were read, the gifts had to be passed in that direction. At the end, whomever had the gift got to keep it. In retrospect, I think there should be one gift for every 3 or 4 players. I did not have enough going around to keep everyone busy passing, with only 3 in about 20 players.

I had a few other games we did not end up playing, but it was good to have extras. The last one was to dress up the bride. Armed with newspaper, tin foil, tissue, tape and scissors, four teams each took up the mission to design one of the following: skirt, bodice, sleeves, and headpiece.













After 15 minutes it was time to dress the bride.

















Beauty hurts.





You may now place the ring on Mr Right's finger.





The happy couple!









Look at the detail of that heart headpiece. I completely missed that until now.





Will the real Mr Right please stand up?





Fun! Off to sewing class again today. Then we'll spend time with friends, then Boy Scouts tonight. Long day.

Faith

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